Gallery
Now & Then
In order to bring the past to life, I’ve creatively edited some historic photos into modern-day Wrangell as seen through Google Street View. These scenes offer a glimpse into the past in the place where it happened.
Restored Photos
Here are some photos I manually restored using Photoshop.
1920s under Snow
The original of this photo contained a large tree in the way, a long with some photo damage. I restored this image, and it’s really one of my favorites. The breakwater at the end of Shustack’s Point was built in 1924, so we know this photo was shortly before that.
Harbor at Low Tide
This photo is also from the 1920s. This photo is part of a set of images taken by the US Department of Defense in the early 1920s.
Wrangell After the 1952 Fire
This image (originally two photos) was snapped after the 1952 leveled Wrangell’s waterfront. I retouched this photo slightly, if only to reduce the smoke a little bit in order to see the buildings.
Eadweard Muybridge in Kaachxana.áakʼw
World-famous photographer Eadweard Muybridge visited Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw in 1868, around the time the U.S. Army arrived to construct Fort Wrangel. His stereoscopic photos show two images, taken side by side. Seen through a viewfinder, the images appear 3D. Another way to appreciate the stereoscopic effect is to quickly flip between the two versions. This technique would evolve into motion pictures, invented by none other than Eadweard Muybridge. In 2019, documentary filmmakers of the movie Exposing Muybridge visited Wrangell for a presentation about the history of Muybridge in Alaska (KSTK News).
Here are three Muybridge photos turned into animated GIFs.
