Archives, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
“If you have any regard for me left...": Writing home from the Klondike Gold Rush
Designed and fabricated by the University of Washington's Museology graduate program students, this exhibit highlights the history of the mail system in the Klondike and how people received (or didn't receive) their letters and packages.The extreme climate and the remoteness of the stampeders’ surroundings isolated them from the rest of humanity. Yet the desire to connect with their friends and relatives at home drove them to risk losing large sums of money and to wait in line for days at a time just to send and receive letters, and mail carriers often risked injury and death to make treacherous deliveries. This exhibit illustrates the fundamental human desire to connect, suggesting that we might currently share more of the stampeders’ motivations and difficulties than we previously thought.
