SHI produces photo book to identify people, events in vast Angoon photo collection
Photo collection thought to be largest ever made by a Tlingit
June 2, 2025
(About the Donation) (About Cyril George) (Online Photo Book)
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has produced a photo book to help identify people and events depicted in an expansive photo collection donated to SHI in 2020.
The collection, which spans 75 years, documents Alaska Native life and history and includes more than 20,000 images, most of which were taken by the late Tlingit traditional scholar and master storyteller Cyril George, Sr.
After receiving the collection, SHI had the materials digitized. At the time of the donation, the photos were thought to number more than 4,000. When the last image was scanned, the total number had climbed to 20,000, which is thought to comprise the largest collection of photos ever made by a Tlingit.
“Our people will be thanking Cyril George for recording our history through photographs for many, many generations,” said SHI President Rosita Worl. “He will live on through his unprecedented body of work.”
The photo book includes almost 1,560 scans from the collection and is available to the public for identification purposes at SHI, the Alaska State Library in Juneau and in Angoon at the artist workshop in the facility formerly known as the “museum building” and the Angoon visitor center. The book is also available online for identification purposes.
SHI is hoping those who know any of the people, places, events, at.óow (sacred objects) or dates related to the photos will contact SHI’s Archives and Collections Department at SHIArchives@sealaska.com. SHI asks that respondents include photo numbers along with any descriptions they have to share.
The institute plans to eventually upload a searchable version of the collection to its website.
About the Donation
The family of Cyril George, Sr., donated the collection to the institute in 2020 at an official transfer ceremony in SHI’s clan house, where his granddaughter Lillian Woodbury spoke on their behalf.
“Cyril had a love of people and enjoyed capturing special moments. Had a knack for it. He was a natural. That love has carried over onto me and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Woodbury said.
“We recently learned how big the collection was and that it spanned over 75 years. What a gift for not just ourselves but for others as well. His passion will live on and benefit generations to come.”
The donation was facilitated by Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy, a longtime friend of the family and the attorney who executed Cyril’s estate. Most of the photos depict people, boats, meetings and basketball games, and the collection includes many images that document meetings of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, through which community members championed Native civil rights, said Ruddy, who passed away shortly after the transfer.
The collection, which dates to the 1920s, remained small over the years, then “exploded” from the 1960s through the 1990s, she said. It took five years to settle the estate, Ruddy said.
“The gem of the estate was Cyril’s 75 years of photos,” Ruddy said at the transfer ceremony.
The family chose to donate the collection to SHI because the institute’s state-of-the-art facility meets the highest standards of care for archives and collections.
About Cyril George
Cyril George, Sr., (Kaalkáawu) was a beloved photographer, orator, storyteller and musician. He was a Tlingit Raven and a tribal leader in the Deisheetaan (Beaver) clan of Angoon.
Cyril was an Elder with a vast knowledge of language and culture. He was one of our most cherished historians, deeply trained in Tlingit ways of being and knowing by his family and his community. He was one of the world’s notable and important Indigenous storytellers of his time.
Cyril first picked up a camera when he arrived in the late 1930s at Sheldon Jackson School, an Alaska Native boarding school in Sitka, Alaska. The forceful removal of students from their families dramatically affected the lives of Alaska Natives. Students from around the state turned the school into a forum for sharing ideas about the pursuit of legal rights for Alaska Natives and the formation of Alaska Native political organizations.
After boarding school, Cyril returned to Angoon. “Everywhere Cyril went in Angoon, and maybe other places, he always had a camera hanging over his neck,” former Alaska state senator and lifelong Angoon resident Albert Kookesh said to KTOO Public Broadcasting in 2020.
Over the 75 years that Cyril’s photographs span, Alaska Native people’s lives changed dramatically—from encountering “no Natives allowed” signs posted on buildings to the establishment of Native voting rights and federally recognized tribal organizations. More than just a collection of family photographs, Cyril’s photographs document Tlingit life from the point of view of someone living that experience.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a tribal organization founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee, a Southeast Regional Language Committee and a newly formed Education Committee.
CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com.
Captions: Top: One of more than 20,000 photos from the Cyril George, Sr., Photo Collection; Middle: SHI President Rosita Worl and Cyril George’s daughter, Roberta Jack, signing a deed of gift at a transfer ceremony in 2020 with the photo collection visible in the background (photo by Lyndsey Brollini, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage); Bottom: Cyril George at Sealaska Heritage recording stories in 2013 (photo by Christy Eriksen, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage). Note: Media outlets are permitted to use these images for coverage of this story. For higher-res images, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com.