ENVISIONING ALASKA

Until the voyages of Vitus Bering in 1741, Alaska remained a blank spot on maps and in the European imagination. Capturing this unknown world in images, words and charts was the first call of business for the early Russian explorers. From 1743 until 1867, over a dozen artists travelled to Alaska on voyages sponsored by the Russian Crown and the Russian-American Company. Their pencils and brushes captured peoples and places of Alaska, but also reflected their personalities and time they lived in.