New Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood Photographs

A few weeks ago local Tlingit photographer Brian Wallace donated a batch of historical photographs to SHI Special Collections. Wallace, a professional photographer by trade, has always had a great gift with photography, and the pictures in this donation show his talent. Although Wallace has donated to SHI Special Collections in the past, this donation contained around 200 great photographs concerning the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood from the 1980s. These photographs have since been arranged into our Brian Wallace Photograph Collection (PO032), and for additional information about the collection’s contents you can view our online finding aid by clicking here. Importantly, these photos were donated in the memory of Wallace’s late parents, Amos L. (Jeet Yaaw Dustaa) and Dorothy Wallace (Natstklaa). The below picture is one from the recent donation.

This image was taken by Wallace in 1983 and shows former and then current Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) Camp 2 presidents. The label on the photo reads “Bessie Visaya, Alice Vavilas, Emma Olsen, President, Dorothy Thornton, and Dorothy Wallace.” Camp 2 is the Juneau camp of the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

SHI Special Collections collects materials that document the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people and makes these materials available to the public for educational purposes. If you would like to learn more about donating to SHI Special Collections click here.