Sept. 1928 Dad climbing glacier &
Dad's writing on neg.
[Notes by Luella G. Smith on her father, James H. Gilpatrick,
who had been to Glacier Bay for pictures in August 1928. Apparently
same trip also to Mendenhall in Juneau and perhaps Skagway. Jim has
reproduced a few of these notes on the envelopes, for each negative
with a picture, for a few of them from his postcard size collection.
JHG’s notes and picture on next page.]
Margaret Louise Claire (later Dangel) with her
Grandfather, James Henry Gilpatrick, "Gil", at about the time
of his trip to Glacier Bay and this writing. Building is the first
Photo Shop in a rented building where the Sitka Lutheran Church is in
its second building on the same site.
"It may be interesting to know how we get the
pictures we do it is not all pleasure, but hard work and some times
very dangerous, not only climbing glaciers but high up in the mountains
getting up steep and dangerous clifs with a heavy pack of cameras and
equippment,
The inclose shows the writer about five miles up and near the center of
the Mendenhall Glacier, my camera equippment consists of three cameras
1- 7x11 tripod filters film holders and galvanized water tight case, 1,
graflex and 1, panorama camera, total weight 75 pounds, a light pack
for an all day jaunt, the wroter is chown with the help of one of
Father Hubbards ice picks getting up on a ledge of ice that is trying
to block our progress, note the two dranage holes at the back that are
hundreds of feet deep and a beautiful shading of blue as it dissapears
to a black hole, a slip may be fatal, yet we take these chances for
pictures, fascinating, yes for a lover of pictures, this is only one of
many such trips, at one time I climbed a clif with my pack for 45
minutes only to find I was trapped and could go no further, a slip ment
a drop of three or four hundred feet and would mean no more picture
taking for me, but holding on with my finger nails and toes I managed
to descend to where I had started, being miles from another soul one
gets a bit nervous, an attempt to another place also failed, but the
third place tried brought me to the top of Arrow Head on Mount
Verstovia,"
I just found a pile of Grandmother's negatives and prints where she had gone to Glacier Bay herself. Luella G. Smith’s number 529 in her postcard size wooden file number 2, photographed Aug. 7-9/53. ASL will need to share them with NPS also.
James R. Dangel
P.O. Box 219
Sitka, Alaska 99835 USA
Phone: 907-747-3348
Email:
