This exhibition offers over sixty views from Nordic Heritage Museum’s archive of Wilse photographs, along with five partners with collections and archives of Wilse photography. It compares images from Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and Norway that show people and the lands, public works and urban environments, scenes of labor and landscapes, as well as featured photographs from exhibition partners, including Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI); University of Washington Libraries; Ballard Historical Society; Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway; and Norsk Teknisk Museum, Oslo, Norway.
Anders Beer Wilse (1865 – 1949) was a Norwegian engineer and self-taught photographer who lived in Seattle from 1892 to 1900. He left a legacy of early photographs documenting this period of unprecedented growth and change in Seattle’s history, including views of the Alaskan Gold Rush of 1896 – 1899. Wilse returned to Norway around 1900, where he became one of Norway’s most famous photographers.
