Guide to Lawrence Knight photograph album
1943-1945
Collection number: HMC-0674.
Creator: Knight, Lawrence.
Title: Lawrence Knight photograph album.
Dates: 1943-1945.
Volume of collection: 0.2 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Materials in this collection are in English.
Collection summary: Photographs and postcards collected by a soldier stationed at a U.S. Army weather forecasting unit located at Fort Glenn and Yakutat during World War II.
Biographical note:
Lawrence Knight was from Portland, Maine. He was a soldier in a U. S. Army weather forecasting detachment. Knight served at Fort Glenn, near Nikolski on Umnak Island, from July 1943 to September 1944, and at Yakutat Airfield, in the spring and summer of 1945.
Collection description:
The collection consists of the World War II era photograph album of Lawrence Knight. The collection contains: the original album covers and pages with photograph captions; 64 black and white prints from the album; and two souvenir fold-outs of Alaska post card views. Subjects of the photographs include: soldiers of the weather detachment and the Aircraft Warning Service; Fort Glenn and the Fort Glenn Weather Station; a lava flow on Chuginadak Island; seals at Bogoslof Island; the village of Nikolski; St. Nicholas church at Nikolski (interior altar); the Umnak Island mountains of Vsevidof, Saddle Back, Tulik, and Idak; Ship Rock; Yakutat village; and Yakutat Airfield. The fold-out post card views are of Southeast Alaska and other typical Alaskan subjects.
Arrangement: Collections are arranged by type of material.
Alternative formats: A xerographic copy of the album and 29 copy negatives of selected photographs are included in the collection.
Digitized copies: Selected photographs from this collection have been digitized and can be accessed on Alaska’s Digital Archives.” For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Rights note: The Archives and Special Collections does not own copyright to these photographs.
Preferred citation: Lawrence Knight photograph album, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Related materials: For more materials related to World War II, please see the World War II in Alaska topic guide.
Acquisition note: Archives and Special Collections purchased the album from an online auction in 2004.
Processing information: The original scrapbook was dismantled and this collection was described by Jeffrey Sinnott in 2004. The guide was converted to current standards by Amanda Coffey in 2016.
Location of originals: Some photographs are missing from the album and were never given to the archives.
Container list:
Note: item numbers of prints from album correspond to the page number and position on page of each photograph as they appeared in the original album, top to bottom and left to right. If there is one photograph on the page, only the page number will be used.
| Folder | Item | Description |
| 1 | Photographs from albums | |
| 1 | 2a | “Lava flow at Chuginadak” |
| 1 | 2b | “Chuginadak taken before the volcano erupted. Notice where heat and lava have entirely caused snow to disappear in picture above. Spring 1944 |
| 1 | 3a & b | “Seals at Bogoslof Island”; summer 1944 |
| 1 | 4a. | “Scene inside Russian Orthodox Church at Nikolski. There were only three Aleuts here at the time but they fixed up the church and held an Easter Service. After the service they got me to come over and take this picture, Spring 1944” Close-up of altar |
| 1 | 5a | “Part of the gang which were at Ft. Glenn when I first arrived, Oct. 1943” (back of photo). “Some of the gang who were at Ft. Glenn when I arrived July 1943” (album caption). Group photo of eight soldiers |
| 1 | 5b | “Robert Russell and Tony. Taken at Nikolski in April 1944 (back of photo). “Sgt. Russell and Tony. Also ‘Puppy,’ March 1944, Nikolski” (album caption). Soldier on horse with dog beside them |
| 1 | 5c | “Charlie Wilson taken Back shore, Nikolski, Jan. 1944” (back of photo). “‘Charlie Wilson’ Back Shore, Nikolski. Cliff is about 300′ high facing Pacific Ocean” (album caption) |
| 1 | 5d | “S/Sgt. Gautier who arrived at Ft. Glenn about the same time I did. Oct. 1943” |
| 1 | 6a | “Scene inside Aleut Church. Easter 1944” (back of photo). “Inside Aleut church, Nikolski, arranged for Easter Service although there were only 3 Aleuts living here at the time.
Church is Russian Orthodox” (album caption). View of altar from further back |
| 1 | 7a | “Shaw, myself and Muller in front of our hut at Ft. Glenn. Sept., 1944” (back of photo). “Where I lived the last part of my stay at Ft. Glenn. Mt. Tulik in background, Sept. 1944” (album caption) |
| 1 | 7b | “Claud Antonacci – Ft. Glenn, Sept. 1944” Soldier at open weather instrument station |
| 1 | 7c | “John Shaw – Ft. Glenn. Also teaches school at Madison, N.H., Sept. 1944” |
| 1 | 7d | “Aleuts outside of barn on sheep ranch at Nikolski. Dan, George and Antone, Spring 1944” The three men are identified as Daniel Krukoff, George Chercasen, and Antone Bezezekoff by Lawrence “Larry” Chercasen. |
| 1 | 8a | “An old sourdough” Soldier in coat and cap with ax on shoulder |
| 1 | 9a | “Some of the AWS boys, Nikolski” Group photo of five Aircraft Warning Service soldiers on beach behind small boat |
| 1 | 9b | “Nikolski village with former school and new weather station at extreme right” Distant view |
| 1 | 9c | “Same village – different view, Nikolski, summer of 1944” (back of photo). “Village, Nikolski, church in foreground. Cross marks the grave of Russian trapper” (album caption) |
| 1 | 9d | “Vsevidof & Saddle Back Mts” |
| 1 | 10a | “‘Reddy’ Fox. There are many of these on most of the Aleutian Islands” Fox |
| 1 | 11a | “3 of the 20 odd horses from sheep ranch” Horses grazing |
| 1 | 11b | “A few of the 4000 remaining sheep standing beside trapper’s grave at Nikolski, summer of 1944. There were 14000 sheep here before the war but after the place was evacuated the flock went down part” (back of photo). “2 of the remaining 4000 sheep at Nikolski. Before the war, this flock numbered over 14000″(album caption). Two sheep and tall cross |
| 1 | 11c | “‘Reddy Fox.’ ‘I like to have my picture taken’ he says” (Similar to 10a) |
| 1 | 11d | “Gulls over beach at Nikolski. Facing Bering Sea in front of weather station” |
| 1 | 12a | “Sept. 1944. Ft. Glenn Weather Station. Mt. Tulik, 4100′, in background. This mountain later erupted, tossing out a lot of smoke, but caused no damage” Quonset hut and weather vane |
| 1 | 13a | “Looking at Mt Idak from about 1/3 the way up” |
| 1 | 13b | “Rock formation on top of Idak” |
| 1 | 13c | “Mt. Idak in the distance, 1800 ft. Taken from weather station, Ft. Glenn” Man and dog in foreground |
| 1 | 13d | “Weather Station, Ft. Glenn. Tulik 4100′ in background” (Same as 12a) |
| 1 | 14a | “S/Sgt. Cooper standing in front of Aleut sod hut, Nikolski, summer 1944” Soldier at door of barabara |
| 1 | 14b | “T/Sgt. Bradford, Ft. Glenn” Soldier in helmet with rifle in trench with sandbags |
| 1 | 14c | “Seals, Bogoslof Island, summer 1944” |
| 1 | 15a | “Ship rock in distance” View from above and behind Fort Glenn |
| 1 | 16a | “Saddle Back, 5100′ and Mt. Vsevidof, 6100′, Nikolski, April 1944 |
| 1 | 17a | Saddle Back and Vsevidof, Nikolski. Taken on same day as previous picture at the start of my hike” |
| 1 | 18a | “Sgt. Russell and Aleuts at Nikolski” Three men and small boat at shoreline |
| 1 | 18b | “Aleuts returning from herding sheep. Taken in front of Nikolski Weather Station” Men and horses in front of wood frame building with bell |
| 1 | 18c | “Mountain range east of Yakutat, spring 1945” Distant view. |
| 1 | 18d | “Lt. Dronin, Nikolski, May 1944” Officer standing next to weather instrument station |
| 1 | 19a | “Yakutat Village” |
| 1 | 20a | “Mountain range, Yakutat” Road and telephone lines in foreground |
| 1 | 21a | “My hut at Yakutat Army Airbase. Taken July 30, 1945” Wood frame building |
| 1 | 22a | “Mountain Range and woods east of Yakutat” |
| 1 | 23a | “Sleeping out in the woods at Point Carou. Thats me in the middle. S/Sgt. Topping hiked down in the early morning and took this picture while we were still sleeping. We slept outdoors to get the fresh air, but soon dug down into our sacks to get away from the mosquitos which really gave us a rough time. June 1945” Three men in mummy bags outside small hut |
| 1 | 24a | “Jim Corning, Paul Friedman and myself in the background starting off on one of our many outings and fishing trips” (back of photo). “Jim Corning, Paul Freidman and myself ready to start on one of our outings and fishing trips, May 1945, Yakutat” (album caption). Three men in jeep |
| 1 | 24a | “Skeets the dog who made most of our trips” |
| 1 | 25b | “Driftwood on beach at Yakutat (back of photo). “Looking downstream from just outside of camp, Yakutat” (album caption) |
| 1 | 26a | “On the beach at Yakutat village” Soldier sitting on edge of dory on beach |
| 2 | Loose Prints | |
| 2 | 1 | Soldier at weather instrument station |
| 2 | 2 | Soldier standing in surf on beach |
| 2 | 3 | Soldier sitting at desk inside hut |
| 2 | 4 | Aerial view of mountains from airplane |
| 2 | 5 | Tlinget natvies in tribal regalia |
| 2 | 6 | Swamp scene |
| 2 | 7 | Smoke on island. Possibly on Chuginadak Island |
| 2 | 8 | “Native of Yakutat village displays Tlingit crafts” |
| 2 | 9 | “Dog team on ice, Alaska” (Photo post card addressed from Lawrence to Mrs. Charles L. Knight, Portland, Maine, Aug. 7, 1945 |
| 2 | 10 | Fox and dog on boardwalk. |
| 2 | 11 | Fox (same as 10a) |
| 2 | 12 | Two dogs in front of building door. |
| 2 | 13 | Two small Alaska Native boys with treats outside building door |
| 2 | 14 | Small Alaska Native boy in cap outside house in Yakutat |
| 2 | 15 | Scene at Yakutat Airfield |
| 2 | 16 | Road and telephone poles near Yakutat (badly faded) |
| 2 | 17 | Southeastern Alaska Views in color” (Published by Tammen Co., Denver; Sydney Lawrence paintings on cover; 18 different color views). Souvenir fold-out of Alaska post card view |
| 2 | 18 | “Souvenir – Folder of Alaska” (Copyright by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle, Wash.; 12 different black and white views) |
| 3 | Album covers and pages | |
| 4 | Xerographic copy of album | |
| 5 | Copy negatives |