# 134-895

Case & Draper.

The Taku Girl with a Bad Eye

[Original B/W Photograph].Juneau, Alaska: Case & Draper, [circa 1906]. Good to very good. 15.75 X 12.75 inches. Original black and white photograph. A few small imperfections and 4" tear coming from right side that has been expertly repaired else in beautiful condition. In large wooden frame with gilt inner border. Off white matting. A beautiful portrait with title beneath.

A striking portrait of a Taku girl showing her upper torso view. She is draped in a fur blanket and wearing a fierce headdress. The girl is adorned with many necklaces and a ring in her nose.

The W.H. Case and H.H. Draper photography studios opened in 1898, in a small tent in Skagway, Alaska. The partners later moved their business to a two-story building on Broadway near 4th Avenue, where they also sold curios, photographic supplies, Alaska Native handicrafts and game specimens. By 1907, the partnership between Case and Draper had been mutually dissolved; Draper kept the Skagway shop while Case opened a new store in Juneau (Alaska). Case and Draper were best known for their portraits and photographs of the life and customs of the Tlingit Indians, early Skagway and the Gold Rush of 1898. Their views were reproduced in a variety of Alaskan books, including the Soapy Smith Tragedy, and on postcards and White Pass &Yukon Railway souvenir playing cards. Collection includes views of southeast Alaska, portraits, and Tlingit Indians, 1898-1920.

The Taku are an Alaskan Native people that lived along the Northwestern coast of North America, in the area that is now the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska, and on the lower basin of the Taku River of the adjoining British Columbia mainland above that river's mouth.

Price:  $750 US  Please Inquire

RETURN TO HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPH THUMBNAILS