The following is a guest post by Leigh Gleason, Head, Reference Section, Prints & Photographs Division.
The Keystone Review was a magazine published by stereographic photograph publisher Keystone View Company and distributed to its sales staff, who sold Keystone’s stereo cards door-to-door. The magazine was published from 1898 through 1909, and the Library of Congress is the only place in the world where you can see a complete run of all issues. The Library recently digitized them, so now you can read them anywhere.

The magazine is heavily focused on salesmanship advice for its sales force working throughout the country and world. If you dig into it, you’ll find that The Keystone Review is also peppered with interesting updates about the adventures of Keystone’s photographers. These aren’t in every issue, but there are quite a few such features.
Take, for example, the exploits of Will H. Leigh, the photographer that Keystone sent to Alaska to photograph the gold rush in 1898 and 1899, detailed in an article titled “A Trip through Alaska: The Keystone View Company’s Photographer in the Frozen North” in The Keystone Review [volume 1, number 12 (October 1899), pages 1-2]. Leigh is uncredited for his individual photographs for Keystone because Keystone often registered its copyright in the name of the company or its founder, B.L. Singley, who was seldom the actual photographer. In The Keystone Review, we gain a narrative understanding of the images Leigh produced. The article states that he produced over 700 negatives on his journey. Browsing through the Prints & Photographs Division’s LOT 11525-1, which contains Keystone View Company images of the Alaskan gold rush, we find approximately 170 of Leigh’s 700 images.
Below are a few highlighted images, each preceded by a quote from the “A Trip through Alaska” article:
“Mr. Leigh left San Francisco on May 13, ’98 on the steamer ‘Dora Blohm’ [sic] and after a very rough voyage of thirty-eight days he reached St. Michaels […]”

“From Arctic City the party proceeded to the mouth of Allenkakett river and followed up that stream 120 miles […]”

“He is the first stereoscopic photographer to make an extended trip through Alaska and to make stereoscopic photographs north of the Arctic Circle.”

“[…] they established their permanent winter quarters, and called the place Beaver City[.] Beaver City increased in size so that when winter set in it contained sixteen cabins with a population of about 100 people.”

“During the winter Mr. Leigh made trips with parties who transported the supplies to various camps and cabins […]”

“He experienced some difficulty in operating his camera during the cold weather – the coldest of which was experienced in February.”

“Although Mr. Leigh’s trip has been very successful from a photographic standpoint, he does not care to return to Alaska and search for gold, as it is his opinion that more gold is expended by prospecting parties on outfits, transportation, etc., than is taken from the mines.”

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