FOUR ORIGINAL 19TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS OF CANOEISTS ON A FROZEN ALASKAN LAKE. by (Stoddard, Seneca Ray). Pond, Major James B - [1890].

[1890]., [1890].. Good. - What is being offered here are four original 4-1/8 inch high by 6-1/2 inch wide photographs apparently attributed to Seneca Ray Stoddard by impresario Major James B. Pond. They date from the late 1880's to the early 1890's. Three of the four photographs depict 2 men in a canoe on a lake which appears to be located in the American north, likely Alaska. One beautifully composed image depicts the 2 men paddling near the shore, with majestic snow covered mountains rising behind the evergreen covered hills in the foreground. Two others depict the canoeists on the shore of an ice floe, chipping away at the ice with a mallet. The final image portrays one of the men standing on the raised edge of an ice floe, standing tall above the water, with a frozen shoreline in the background. The photographs are slightly curling with creases along the edges and corners. Although unidentified, these photographs are from the Pond archives and were contained within an unrelated sheet of folded paper at the top of which is typed "Stoddard Pictures". Although there are 6 images identified in type on the folded sheet, none of these photos, which were laid inside, match those on Pond's list. We can only assume that these are either by Seneca Ray Stoddard or that they may have been processed by Stoddard for Pond with whom he had an association. Seneca Ray Stoddard sometimes traveled with the American lecture impresario Major Pond photographing the celebrities who lectured under the aegis of The Pond Bureau. At other times he processed Pond's own photographs of his subjects.

Major Pond and Seneca Ray Stoddard had a professional relationship. Mr. Stoddards lectures are illustrated by means of a large stereopticon, the pictures for which he makes himself, being a practicing photographer of more than thirty years experience. Of these pictures Mr. J.B. Pond, under whose management the lectures are given, says, Mr. Stoddards pictures are the most beautiful ever shown before an American audience, and I do not believe that they are equaled in any part of the world! [DeSorno" Seneca Ray Stoddard: Versatile Camera Artist, page 129].