Boudoir-size albumen print by F. Jay Haynes, official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, titled “Taku Glacier” and numbered 5412 in his Alaska Views series ca 1891. The photograph presents a sweeping view of the glacier’s massive, jagged ice front meeting the still waters of Taku Inlet. Small icebergs and floating fragments are scattered across the reflective surface, their presence hinting at the glacier’s active calving. The dark, rocky flanks on either side of the glacier and the snow-covered ridges in the distance frame the scene, emphasizing the scale and grandeur of the ice wall.

The printed catalog on the reverse situates this image among Haynes’s extensive portfolio of Alaska landscapes, glaciers, and coastal settlements, produced for the burgeoning tourist trade of the late 19th century. Taku Glacier, located near Juneau, is one of the largest glaciers in the Juneau Icefield and remains notable for its relative stability compared to many retreating glaciers in the region.

Haynes’s Alaska Views offered travelers and collectors a way to bring home striking visual mementos of their journey through the Inside Passage. His skill in capturing both the detail of the ice formations and the atmospheric qualities of the scene makes this a significant record of Southeast Alaska’s glacial environment during the late 1800s.