Portrait of Charles W. Fairbanks

New York: Pach Brothers, 1904. Unknown. Very Good. Broadsheet 20x15.75 inches; Photomechcanical print from a portrait photograph by Pach Brothers Photography, New York; Light even age toning with wide margins, several small pin holes in top margins, no chips or closed tears to edges, 3 inch white mark on bottom right margin no loss. CS. Charles W. Fairbanks (1852-1918) was a lawyer from Indiana, a U. S. Senator (1897-1905) and Theodore Roosevelt's, imposed by conservatives, Vice President (1905-1909, Second Term). As Vice President, the republican Fairbanks worked against Roosevelt's progressive agenda. As an Indiana Senator during the Spainish American War, Fairbanks supported McKinley and was on the Foreign Relations Committee and served on the Alaska Affairs Commission.

This broadside was printed in 1904 and was intended as a political poster for the Presidential campaign. The portrait is from a photograph by the Pach Brothers of New York.  They were a well known portrait studio for celebrities, politicians, and others. The studio was started by the brothers, Gustavus, Morris, and Gotthelf in 1867 and lasted to 1994. A similar copy of the broadside, in the same year, is in the Cornell University Library digital collections 2214.PO0003.

Elbridge Truman Barnette (1863-1933) was to become the first mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska. He came to Alaska in the Klondike stampede in 1897, but misfortune delayed his staking a claim. Instead he developed trading posts to support the miners. After several other misfortunate steamboat/ice clogging events, he was able to establish a trading post at Chena on the Tanana River far from the Yukon gold strikes. When gold was discovered in the area, fortunes changed and a settlement started to grow. In 1902, James Wickersham (1857-1939) a local Judge and suggested that Barnette name the community after Senator Fairbanks and in 1903 the City of Fairbanks was incorporated.