Portrait of Stephen Ivanoff of Unalaklik, Alaska, dressed in a striking Native Alaskan fur parka with bold striped design and decorative border, captured in the Chicago studio of photographer Louis M. Melander, located at 208 E. Ohio Street. The sitter stands before a painted winter backdrop that evokes the arctic environment from which he came, wearing fur-lined boots and traditional leg coverings. His distinctive parka appears to incorporate both aesthetic and functional aspects of Alaska Native garment-making traditions, featuring symmetrical design and geometric border motifs.

Stephen Ivanoff (also known as Ivanov) was a Siberian Yupik leader and trader of Russian-Native descent who played a prominent role in the Bering Strait region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known for his leadership at Unalaklik, a key settlement on Norton Sound, he was instrumental in advocating for the Native community and maintaining trading and communication routes across Alaska and eastern Siberia. Cabinet cards of Ivanoff are scarce and of ethnographic and regional interest, especially when identified in ink on the verso as in this example, which reads “Stephen Ivanoff, Unalaklik Alaska.”