Larss and Duclos

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Larss and Duclos was a photographic studio partnership between Per Edvard Larss and Joseph E. N. Duclos (1863-1917) in Dawson City, Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [1]

Contents

Paying with gold dust in a Dawson City grocery store, 1899 Dawson-golddust-1899.jpg
Paying with gold dust in a Dawson City grocery store, 1899

Duclos was born in Quebec and moved to Maine where he learned photography. He moved to Dawson with his wife Emily in 1898 via St. Michael, Alaska and the Yukon River. He mined on Lovett Gulch until he joined the studio. Duclos specialized in portraits while Larss photographed gold rush scenes and scenery. [1]

The border pass on the Chilkoot Trail, 1898 Chilkoot-border-1898.jpg
The border pass on the Chilkoot Trail, 1898

Larss and Duclos took over the studio of Eric A. Hegg, who arrived in Skagway in October 1897 after a short stop in Dyea. He immediately opened a studio and was joined a year later by his brother and a friend of the two brothers, Peter Andersson, along with Per Edvard Larss in the following spring, who also was a Swedish-American photographer. [2] In 1899, after a year in Yukon, Hegg returned to Skagway and left his studio in Dawson to Larss and Duclos. [3] Duclos was from Quebec. [2]

People boarding a steamboat in Dawson, Yukon Territory heading for Cape Nome, September 1899 Klondike-nome-1899.jpg
People boarding a steamboat in Dawson, Yukon Territory heading for Cape Nome, September 1899

The pair witnessed the Chilkoot Trail and the Klondike gold rush capturing iconic photographs that are used to illustrate the era. [4] [5] [6]

The partnership dissolved in 1904 when Larss left the area for Denver and Nevada, [7] selling out to his partner. [8] Duclos continued in the studio business until 1914. [1]

Collections

Horses pulling a wagon through a muddy Front Street in Dawson City, 1898 Dawson-1898-mud.jpg
Horses pulling a wagon through a muddy Front Street in Dawson City, 1898

The pair's work is collected by various museums and archives in Canada, Alaska, and Washington State, many of them making their photographs available online. [9]

Canyon and Whitehorse Rapids Tramway, 1898 Miles-canyon-tramway-1898.jpg
Canyon and Whitehorse Rapids Tramway, 1898

These include the Royal Museum of British Columbia. [10] University of Washington Libraries, [11] City of Vancouver Archives, [12] Vancouver Public Library special collections, [13] the Yukon Archives, [14] Alaska State Archives, [15] Dawson City Museum, [16] McCord [17] and others. [18]

See also

Fair View Hotel in Dawson, ca. 1899 Fairview Hotel.jpg
Fair View Hotel in Dawson, ca. 1899

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yukon</span> Territory of Canada

Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 44,975 as of 2023. However, Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement in any of the three territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skagway, Alaska</span> Consolidated city-borough in Alaska, United States

The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with more than 1,000,000 visitors each year. Incorporated as a borough on June 25, 2007, it was previously a city in the Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon Census Area. The most populated community is the census-designated place of Skagway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Gold Rush</span> 1896–1899 migration to Yukon, Canada

The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Pass and Yukon Route</span> Canada–US railway line

The White Pass and Yukon Route is a Canadian and U.S. Class III 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the Port of Skagway, and via road through a few of the stops along its route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District of Alaska</span> Governmental designation for Alaska from 1884 to 1912

The District of Alaska was the federal government’s designation for Alaska from May 17, 1884, to August 24, 1912, when it became Alaska Territory. Previously (1867–1884) it had been known as the Department of Alaska, a military designation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilkoot Trail</span> Long-distance hiking trail in Canada and the United States

The Chilkoot Trail is a 33-mile (53 km) trail through the Coast Mountains that leads from Dyea, Alaska, in the United States, to Bennett, British Columbia, in Canada. It was a major access route from the coast to Yukon goldfields in the late 1890s. The trail became obsolete in 1899 when a railway was built from Dyea's neighbor port Skagway along the parallel White Pass trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilkoot Pass</span> Mountain pass in British Columbia and Alaska

Chilkoot Pass is a high mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the U.S. state of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. It is the highest point along the Chilkoot Trail that leads from Dyea, Alaska to Bennett Lake, British Columbia. The Chilkoot Trail was long a route used by the Tlingit for trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennett Lake</span> Lake in Yukon Territory, Canada

Bennett Lake is a lake in the Province of British Columbia and Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada, at an elevation of 642 m (2,106 ft). It is just north of the border with the United States state of Alaska, near the Alaskan port of Skagway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennett, British Columbia</span> Ghost town in Canada

Bennett, British Columbia, Canada, is an abandoned town next to Bennett Lake and along Lindeman Creek. The townsite is now part of the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site of Canada and is managed by Parks Canada. Bennett is also a stop on the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad during the summer months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Pass</span>

White Pass, also known as the Dead Horse Trail, is a mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the border of the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia, Canada. It leads from Skagway, Alaska, to the chain of lakes at the headwaters of the Yukon River, Crater Lake, Lake Lindeman, and Bennett Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyea, Alaska</span> Ghost town in Alaska, United States

Dyea is a former town in the U.S. state of Alaska. A few people live on individual small homesteads in the valley; however, it is largely abandoned. It is located at the convergence of the Taiya River and Taiya Inlet on the south side of the Chilkoot Pass within the limits of the Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska. During the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors disembarked at its port and used the Chilkoot Trail, a Tlingit trade route over the Coast Mountains, to begin their journey to the gold fields around Dawson City, Yukon, about 800 km (500 mi) away. Confidence man and crime boss Soapy Smith, famous for his underworld control of the town of Skagway in 1897–98 may have had control of Dyea as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Highway</span> Highway in Skagway, Alaska, United States and Yukon Territory, Canada

The Klondike Highway is a highway that runs from the Alaska Panhandle through the province of British Columbia and the territory of Yukon in Canada, linking the coastal town of Skagway, Alaska, to Dawson City, Yukon. Its route somewhat parallels the route used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Canal</span> Natural inlet in Alaska Panhandle, US

Lynn Canal is an inlet into the mainland of southeast Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park</span> Four US sites commemorate prospector migrant routes to Yukon Territory, Canada, 1896–99

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is a national historical park operated by the National Park Service that seeks to commemorate the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Though the gold fields that were the ultimate goal of the stampeders lay in the Yukon Territory, the park comprises staging areas for the trek there and the routes leading in its direction. There are four units, including three in Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska and a fourth in the Pioneer Square National Historic District in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiya River</span> River in Alaska, United States

The Taiya River is a 17-mile-long (27 km) river in the U.S. state of Alaska running from the border with British Columbia, Canada, to the Taiya Inlet of upper Lynn Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skagway Historic District and White Pass</span> Historic district in Alaska, United States

The Skagway Historic District and White Pass is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing a significant portion of the area within the United States associated with the Klondike Gold Rush. It includes the historic portion of Skagway, Alaska, including the entire road grid of the 1897 town, as well as the entire valley on the United States side of White Pass all the way to the Canada–US border. This area includes surviving fragments of three historic routes used during the Gold Rush, as well as the route of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. Almost 100 buildings remain from the Gold Rush period. Portions of the district are preserved as part of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.

The Klondike Gold Rush is commemorated through film, literature, historical parks etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric A. Hegg</span> Swedish-American photographer (1867–1947)

Eric A. Hegg was a Swedish-American photographer who portrayed the people in Skagway, Bennett and Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1901. Hegg himself participated in prospecting expeditions with his brother and fellow Swedes while documenting the daily life and hardships of the gold diggers.

Case & Draper was a photographic studio partnership in Skagway, Alaska, between William Howard Case and Horace H. Draper. Their work included photographs of the Tlingit, portraits, scenery, and gold rush era images. Digital collections of their work are available at the Orbis Cascade Alliance and the Alaska State Library, which has images of their photographic tent as well as their dog team and sled in front of their store. From 1907 to 1914, the studio was known as Draper and Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindeman Creek</span> River in British Columbia, Canada

Lindeman Creek, formerly known as One Mile River connects Bennett Lake to Lindeman Lake, areas on the Chilkoot Trail in far northwestern British Columbia, Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Portraits of an Era - Larss and Duclos".
  2. 1 2 "Larss & Duclos Photography – Skagway Stories". 22 September 2009.
  3. "A long, strange trip for Dawson mystery photos". 29 July 2016.
  4. "Boat building - Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site". Archived from the original on 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  5. "Chercheur d'or".
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2018-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-11-27. Retrieved 2018-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Larss and Duclos: Camera Workers, 1858-1950". cameraworkers.davidmattison.com.
  9. Network, CHIN-Canadian Heritage Information. "Portraits of an Era - Larss and Duclos". www.virtualmuseum.ca.
  10. "Larss and Duclos - RBCM Archives". search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
  11. "Archives West: Larss and Duclos photographs, 1898-1910". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org.
  12. "Larss and Duclos - City of Vancouver Archives". searcharchives.vancouver.ca.
  13. "Inmagic DB/Text WebPublisher PRO - DB/Text WebPublisher cannot be accessed in this way". www3.vpl.ca.
  14. "Yukon Archives: Larss & Duclos". yukon.minisisinc.com.
  15. "Alaska's Digital Archives". vilda.alaska.edu.
  16. "Dawson City Museum". www.dawsonmuseum.ca.
  17. "Musée McCord Museum - Results". collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca.
  18. "Caption list" (PDF). www.tc.gov.yk.ca. 17 May 2022.