SERIES: Pictorial History of the United States and Territories
SCENES: Alaskans, Indian Village in Background; Granville Channel, En Route to Alaska; Haunts of the Sea Lion
SIZE: 5" x 3"
DATE: 1892
LITHOGRAPHER: Donaldson Brothers, N.Y.
CONDITION: Good, I'd say. This card is lightly soiled with slightly worn edges and rounded corners. There are sharp diagonal creases across both lower corners and a slight thumb bend near the center of the right edge. (Please see scans.)
MULTIPLE ITEM SHIPPING DISCOUNT: I will ship up to 4 cards for the single base shipping charge shown. For purchases of more than 4 cards, the shipping charge will increase by just a small increment for every 4 additional cards.
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REVERSE TEXT: ALASKA.
THE Russian navigators, Chirikoff and Bering, were the first Europeans to see the Alaskan shore, reaching the lone northland at different points in 1741. These intrepid and ill-fated explorers were followed by the Siberian fur-hunters. In 1799 the Emperor Paul of Russia granted a twenty-year Charter to the Russian-American Company, whose iron-willed manager, Baranoff, conquered the country as far as Sitka, which was founded in 1801, established a colony in California, and opened trade with China, Honolulu and the Spanish colonies. Under the strong influence of Seward and Sumner, the United States bought Alaska in 1867 for $7,200,000 in gold. It has been said that the gold mines of Alaska will produce enough treasure to pay the national debt. These rich deposits were first discovered in 1877 at Silver Bay, near Sitka. In 1880 Joseph Jumeau, a French-Canadian miner, a nephew of the founder of Milwaukee, found free gold in great quantities in the mountain-girt Silver Bow Basin. Over $1,000,000 in dust has since been washed out of these places. The fisheries are of enormous value, and the Government has received from the seal islands a sum equal to that which was paid for the Territory. Four million seals visit the Pribiloff Isles every summer, and up to a recent date the number was not decreasing, owing to the prohibition of killing females. Grave difficulties arose between the United States and Great Britain in 1889 by reason of the American revenue cutters seizing Canadian seal-vessels in these waters.
