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LAWRENCE M. DEMERS. Photograph Album; n.d., 1929, 1937, 1939-1944. .1 cu. ft.
Lawrence M. Demers was from Central Montana. He worked as a tractor operator for the Civil Aeronautics Authority in Galena, Alaska, constructing a civilian air field and facilities there from 1939 to 1944. Demers also worked in the Aleutian Islands in 1944.
The collection consists of the contents of the photograph album of Lawrence M. Demers. The collection contains: a xerographic copy of the original 8-page photograph album entitled, "Alaska C.A.A. Camp Photographs, 1939-1944"; 85 original black and white prints (73 of which were mounted on the album pages) and 9 color prints; 8 black and white Alaskan tourist prints; and an x-ray film from 1929 of Demers' left forearm fracture. Subjects of the photographs originally mounted in the album include: Lawrence Demers and fellow construction workers at Galena; people, buildings, houses, tent camps, vehicles, tractors, and boats at Galena; holiday competitions at Galena; and people and buildings at the nearby Yukon River villages of Nulato and Koyukuk. The competitions at Galena include a sack race, canoe race, apple eating contest, nut roll, pillow fight, and foot races. Specific images of Galena include the native cemetery with spirit houses, the Riverboat Alice, and the Bishop Mountain Trading Company store. Subjects of the loose photographs with the album include: Demers with a fellow orderly and doctor at a camp hospital in Minnesota in 1937; the Wasilla Railroad Depot in 1940; Demers' car on the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Palmer in 1943; Demers in front of Paxson's Lodge on the Richardson Highway in 1943; Demers at a base in the Aleutian Islands in 1944; and Demers' father, Louis Demers, at his home in Lewistown, Montana, in the 1960s or early 1970s (color).
The collection was acquired by the archives in 2005.
HMC-0748
JAS (6/2005)