50 black-and-white photographs of early coal mining and oil extraction near the Bering River in Alaska, many with embossed stamp or handwritten name of Merl LaVoy. Various sizes, most 3 x 5 inches or 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches, a few slightly smaller. Loose as issued, currently housed in modern sheet protector pages. Some light fading or sunning, many with old glue residue on the versos, a few with with minor creasing or chipping, overall very good. A few images have some identifying information handwritten in pencil to versos. Alaska, circa 1912.

Merl LaVoy (1885-1953) was a photographer and documentary cinematographer who traveled the world and was nicknamed "The Modern Marco Polo". In 1907, he first started working for the Great Northern Development Company, which was prospecting for copper at the Kotsina River mine in Alaska, and began his career as a photographer. In 1910, LaVoy traveled to Seattle where he met Hersechel Parker and Belmore Browne, and joined their expeditions to Denali in 1910 and 1912. In 1913, he was assigned by the Chicago Mail to accompany publisher Ben Boyce on an around-the-world journey, taking photographs. And in 1916, he filmed one of the first tank attacks of World War I and is credited as the only civilian cinematographer from the United States who filmed on the battlefields with the French army.

During one of LaVoy's expeditions to Alaska, he visited the now-abandoned small town of Katalla, where the first discovery of commercial quantities of oil had been made in 1902. He also visited the nearby Bering River coal fields, and took photographs of both locations. At the time of his visit, the question of whether the coal fields should be protected or exploited was the subject of great controversy. The chief of the US Division of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot, was at the center of the "Ballinger Affair", a dispute regarding whether the federal government should allow private corporations to control water rights or if the wilderness should be protected, and Pinchot was fired by President Taft as a result.

When LaVoy took these photographs, the issue was still not settled, but some coal was being extracted and the potential value of the coal fields was being evaluated. His photographs show camps and equipment, coal samples and sacks of coal, an entrance to a mine, workers, and landscape views. One of the figures has been identified as Sumner S. Smith, a mine inspector for the US Department of the Interior. The images of Katalla include a view of the town from the bay, oil derricks, oil tanks, and construction efforts. Katalla is now a ghost town, and these early construction and exploration images are uncommon.

Book ID: 53593

Price: $950.00