Alaska is the largest state in the United States lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent. It contains 17 of the 20 highest peaks in the United States. Alaska was admitted to the union as the 49th state in 1959. The US Secretary of State William Henry Seward, bought Alaska from Russians in 1867 for $7.2 million – less than 2 cents an acre. It took six months to persuade Congress to ratify the treaty. The Alaska Purchase was initially referred to as “Seward’s Folly” by critics who were convinced the land had nothing to offer. However, the discovery of gold in the 1890s made the purchase one of the most profitable investments of Henry Seward.
Here below are some stunning historical photos that show what Alaska looked like in the late 19th century.
#1 Cordova, Alaska, 1868.
#2 Muir glacier in Alaska, 1860s.
#3 Man and woman as they pose at the doorway of a log cabin, Alaska, 1860s
#4 Inhabitants of the Tlingit village of Tongass, Alaska, 1868.
#5 A main street in Cordova, Alaska, with utility poles, boardwalks, and light traffic, 1868.
#6 Chief Shake’s house canoe with Indian Funeral at Ft Wrangel, Alaska, circa 1890.
#7 The interior of St. Michael’s Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church in Sitka, Alaska. 1892
#8 Members of the Metlakahtla Cornet band, a group of Native American brass musicians, pose for a picture next to buildings by the shore in an Alaska town, ca. 1892.
#9 Sitka, Alaska, 1892.
#10 Totem Poles, Alaska, 1893.
#11 A group of actresses bound for the Klondike gold fields take a break at Happy Camp, Alaska, 1897.
#12 Mounts Malaspina, Augusta and Hitchcock, Alaska, 1897.
#13 Steamer “Queen”, Glacier Bay, Alaska’, circa 1897.
#14 Two customs officals seize untaxed alcohol in Skagway, Alaska 1897.
#15 Tlingit women selling baskets and other small items, at the Treadwell Mine site, for tourists arriving in Alaska by steamship, January 1890.
#16 Amerindian family sitting beside a waterway, Alaska, 1868.
#17 A row of tents marks the beginnings of Skagway, a boom town in the ‘panhandle’ part of Alaska, which sprang up following the gold rush in the Klondike, 1880s.
#18 St. Michael’s Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church in Sitka, Alaska, 1892.
#19 Indian Avenue in Sitka, Alaska, 1892
Several Native American women sit on the street outside the Sitka Trading Company in Sitka, Alaska. Sitka was the headquarters of the Russian-American Company and during the 1800s was the site of a thriving fur trade, earning it the nickname the 'Paris of the Pacific.' Ca. 1892.
