Helen Hegener

The Matanuska Colony Album: Photographs of the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project Helen Hegener

In 1935 the U. S. Government transported 203 families from the Great Depression-stricken upper midwest to a valley of unparalleled beauty in Alaska, where they were given the chance to begin new lives as part of a federally-funded social experiment. Willis T. Geisman was the official photographer for the project, and his compelling images of the families, workmen, officials, landscape and more are presented in this collection of his photographs. Willis Geisman traveled to Alaska with the advance guard of officials and workmen for the project, documenting as he went, and he lived among the Matanuska Colony families from May through October, 1935, chronicling their arrival, living in the tent cities built for them, and their farms slowly taking shape over the course of the summer. He photographed the men working to build a community in the Alaskan wilderness, the children playing, the wives going about their daily chores. A line of trucks full of transient workmen setting off for a day's work, a group of children gleefully picking wild raspberries, a proud farm wife showing off her stacked cans of salmon, a farmer harvesting hay behind a team of strong horses. These are the images Willis Geisman captured, and they tell the story of one of the most interesting chapters of Alaskan - and American - history, a time when the U. S. government took a direct hand in the lives of thousands of its citizens. Today the Matanuska Valley, with picturesque Colony farms dotting the landscape, draws worldwide attention for its colorful agricultural heritage and its uniquely orchestrated history. This book of Willis Geisman's enduring photographs tells the story of that history.