Four oblong octavo albums (each ca. 15x21 cm or 5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in). All with period black full cloth covers, fastened with strings; all with generic titles “Snap Shots” on the front boards; all with the manufacturer’s stamps on the inner sides of the rear covers. Several mounts with minor tears or losses on extremities, three mounts in the album [2] detached from the stub and loosely inserted, a few photos mildly faded or with mild silvering, one photo possibly previously removed from the album [3], but overall a very good collection of important photos.

[Album 1. Fairbanks and Alaska]. 56 card stock leaves. With ca. 124 mounted original gelatin silver photos (including several studio photos), from ca. 11,5x16,5 cm (4 ½ x 6 ½ in) to ca. 3,5x6 cm (1 ½ x 2 ¼ in); most photos are ca. 8x14 cm (3 x 5 ½ in) or slightly larger/smaller. Over seventy photos with period ink or pencil captions on the mounts or the lower margins (some captions relate to two or several photos); over a dozen studio photos are captioned in negative. Two photos with elaborately trimmed edges to form random decorative shapes.

[Album 2. Fairbanks and Alaska]. 47 card stock leaves. With ca. 125 mounted original gelatin silver photos (including several studio photos), from ca. 13x18,5 cm (5 x 7 ¼ in) to ca. 3,5x5,5 cm (1 ½ x 2 ¼ in); most photos are ca. 8x14 cm (3 x 5 ½ in) or slightly larger/smaller. Over twenty photos with period ink or pencil captions on the mounts or the lower margins; about ten studio photos are captioned in negative. Several photos with elaborately trimmed edges to form random decorative shapes. Several mounts with minor tears or chipping on extremities, one mount with a loss of a corner, three mounts at the rear are detached from the stub and loosely inserted.

[Album 3. Steampship “Idler’s” trip to the McKinley county, 1921]. 59 card stock leaves. With ca. 130 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 9,5x16 cm (3 ¾ x 6 ¼ in) to ca. 5,5x7,5 cm (2x3 in), including at least twenty-two studio photos. Over a hundred photos with period ink or pencil captions on the mounts or the lower margins (some captions relate to two or several photos); over a dozen studio photos are captioned in negative. One photo possibly previously removed from the album.

[Album 4. Fairbanks social life]. 39 card stock leaves. With ca. 176 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 11x15 cm (4 ½ x 6 in) to ca. 2x3 cm (¾ x 1 ¼ in), including two studio photos and two real photo postcards. One studio photo and both postcards with captions (in negative or printed); the other studio photo with a period pencil caption in the right lower corner. Most photos with elaborately trimmed edges to form random decorative shapes.

Historically significant, extensive collection of original amateur and studio gelatin silver photos, taken and collected by Fairbanks pioneer Fred G. Noyes and his wife Essie in Alaska in the 1900s-1920s.

“In 1897 Mr. Noyes reached Dawson, where he was engaged in sawmill operations and remained there until the Fairbanks rush, being one of the early stampeders to reach the latter place [Noyes came to Fairbanks in June 1903]. By 1904 he had established the mill beside the slough which bears his name. His business [Tanana Mill and Lumber Company] prospered and he was rated as one of the wealthiest men in the Territory. He operated the mill for many years and eventually sold the entire tract which now makes up the Garden Island townsite of the Fairbanks Exploration Company <…> until the last few years [Noyes] controlled large interests in the interior of Alaska” (The Kusko Times. December 8, 1928, p. 4). He owned the Fairbanks Times and served (controversially) as Receiver for the Washington-Alaska Bank after it went bankrupt in 1911. Noyes built a luxurious house, naming it “Essinoye” in honour of his wife. The house still stands today (a corner of Minnie and Illinois streets). “About 1920, Mr. Noyes retired from business and built a sternwheel river steamer called the “Idler.” He spent his summers taking friends on cruises along the Yukon River. In the summer of 1923, Mr. Noyes employed two engineers and spent the season on the Yukon River at the Ramparts about forty miles upstream from Fort Gibbon, where the river is very narrow and swift. He had in mind the idea of harnessing the Yukon at this point for hydroelectric purposes” (Earliest Pioneers Realized Promise of Yukon Growth// Fairbanks Daily News-Miner/ June 16, 1954, p. 11). Noyes’ project didn’t work out, but the idea was considered again in the 1950s.

The albums contain several Fairbanks photos, showing downtown, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and hospital, buildings destroyed in the Great Fire of 1906, St. Matthew’s Hospital, railway depot, “McQueens House, Garden Island,” “the wind took off lid off Court House,” the premises of “Tanana Mill Co.,” “our home,” public parades (down Cushman Street and bridge), “Masonic Temple,” ice skating grounds, portraits of teachers, students and graduates of Fairbanks Public School, participants of a car race and a crew of “4th July races” with their car, &c. Seven photos illustrate a parade of the “Nile Shriners” fraternity in Fairbanks (men and women dressed in distinctive costumes and caps; sign “Smile with Nile”); one of the participants looks like Fred G. Noyes.

Several photos document the visit of Governor Scott Cordell Bone (in office: 1921-1925) to the town of Nenana, including views of the welcome arch (signs reading “Nenana, the future commercial hub of Interior Alaska,” “Nenana where rails and rivers meet,” &c.), a scene with Bone and a group of officials, a photo of “Gov. boat & party crossing Tanana at Nenana” and three group portraits of “Nenana citizens.” Very likely, the visit took place during President Warren Harding’s tour of Alaska in July 1923, who officially opened the Alaska Railroad, driving a ceremonial golden spike at Nenana on July 15.

There are also two interesting scenes with prospectors doing “clean up on Gold Stream” (Fox City is seen in the background), a series of views of Yukon river steamers and paddle wheelers (“Tanana,” “Alaska,” “Seattle No. 3,” “Yukon,” “Julia B,” “Minneapolis”), photos of “winter home, Captain & Mrs. C.W. Adams,” “Bobby Sheldon Stage, 1919-1920,” Chena town, Ruby, a log cabin in Chitina, “farthest-north training camp, Ft. Gibbon,” Chena River, Shaw Creek, log cabins, dog teams, herds of wild caribou, Childs Glacier, Ketchikan, Miles Canyon (Yukon Territory), &c. Several photos show the Rampart Canyon on the Yukon River, where Fred Noyes proposed to build a hydroelectric dam.

One of the albums mostly contains photos from the steamer “Idler’s” summer cruise in the summer of 1921. The Noyes couple and their friends went up the Kantishna River in McKinley County (modern-day Denali Borough). The photos show the steamer and the cruise party on the Kantishna River, Folger Lake, Clear Creek, Toklat River's mouth, the Bear Paw River cabin, the party hunting and boating, “polychrome rock, Toklat,” &c. The other images show “fish camp, Tanana,” several local cabins, wild sheep, moose and caribou, mountainous scenery, “Dead Horse Road House,” “R.R. & Nenana Canyon,” “Mts. near Healey,” “R.R. construction camp,” Riley Creek, &c.

There are also portraits of Fred Noyes and his wife canoeing, driving their car, dressed in traditional Inuit winter clothes, with hunting rifles, in flower gardens, with berry strawberry harvest, &c. Numerous photos portray their friends; the captions identify Edward Coke Hill (1866-1961, a prominent attorney and a federal judge in the Alaska Territory in 1927-35) and his wife Ella Martha Hill; Captain Charles W. Adams (a successful Klondike miner and riverboat owner who played a critical role in the founding of Fairbanks) and his wife.

One of the albums contains a series of portraits of the Noyes, their friends and family, taken inside or outside their Essinoye house in Fairbanks, featuring recognizable interiors of its dining room and parlour. Two portraits of Essie Noyes from the album – one with her friend, posing in fur coats and typical early 20th-century hats in front of the Essinoye, and the other one, taken on board a river steamer (possibly, the “Idler”) in summer - was published in the “Fairbanks Daily News-Miner” in 2021 (see more: Skilbred, J. Women’s Fashions/Pioneer History Nugget; September 13, 2021). The newspaper credited the images to “Pioneer Museum, Noyes Collection.”

Studio photos by Max Manger and others (including those printed as real photo postcards) show “the spring breakup, Fairbanks,” children at “midnight sun festival, Fairbanks,” planes at the Fairbanks airfield, “N.C. Co. Boats at Fairbanks, Alaska,” Moose Creek near Fairbanks, “one mile from the summit of Thompsons Pass,” Nenana, Chena, Crittenden Creek Falls near Wrangell, portraits of Native Americans at Nome and Chena, a mill of the Chena Mining Smelting & Refining Co., Kokrines village, Holy Cross, Healey, &c. Two real photo postcards portray Fairbanks actors on stage (“The Little Tycoon, presented by local talent, Fairbanks, Alaska” and “Casper Fischer Erminie Co., Fairbanks Auditorium, July 1st, 2nd & 3rd, 1909”).

Overall, this is an important, content-rich collection of original photos that illustrate the pioneering years of Fairbanks' history.