A history of Wainwright,
since 1904
Postcards, papers and photographs of Wainwright from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Wainwright area has long been inhabited by the Iñupiat, who called the region Ulġuniq. The Iñupiat were hunter-gatherers who participated in subsistence hunting and fishing, including the whaling of bowhead whales.
The English name Wainwright comes from nearby Wainwright Inlet, which was named after Lieutenant John Wainwright a by British naval officer in 1826. The present village was established in 1904, when the Alaska Native Service built a school there. Wainwright was incorporated as a city in 1962.
Olgoonik Corporation, Wainwright's Alaska Native village corporation, was established in 1973 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Wainwright’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewAlaska, 1917: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Wainwright, decade by decade
1980s
Nothing in Wainwright is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Wainwright has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Aluakpak in Wainwright, 16.5 miles away.
Wainwright and the nearest listed places
Closest to Wainwright
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Alaska (1917) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.