Eric A. Hegg (September 17, 1867 – December 13, 1947) was a Swedish-American photographer who portrayed the people in

Skagway The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal wit ...

Bennett Bennett may refer to: People *Bennett (name), including a list of people with the surname and given name Places Canada * Bennett, Alberta *Bennett, British Columbia * Bennett Lake, in the British Columbia and Yukon Territory **Bennett Range **Benn ...

and

Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...

during the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1901. Hegg himself participated in prospecting expeditions with his brother and fellow Swedes while documenting the daily life and hardships of the gold diggers. The most iconic photograph taken by Hegg is of the

Chilkoot Pass Chilkoot Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the U.S. state of Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. It is the highest point along the Chilkoot Trail that leads from Dyea, Alaska to Bennett La ...

where miners and prospectors are climbing the ice stairs upwards to the top and the awaiting Canada–US border. He also captured the dramatic scenery through which the

White Pass and Yukon Route The White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U.S. Class III narrow-gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railr ...

was awesomely situated. Hegg has been featured in books and films in Sweden depicting his life as an example of The American Dream since he was able to leave his humble situation in Sweden behind and become a

self-made man "Self-made man" is a classic phrase coined on February 2, 1842 by Henry Clay in the United States Senate, to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Foun ...

and successful photographer.

Life and career

Early life

Hegg was born as Erik Jonsson in 1867 in Bollnäs socken,

Hälsingland Hälsingland (), sometimes referred to as Helsingia in English, is a historical province or ''landskap'' in central Sweden. It borders Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is part of the land of Norrland. Ad ...

, Sweden,Barr, Elinor. 2015. ''Swedes in Canada: Invisible Immigrants''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 419. as the second eldest son to the

crofter A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural area ...

Jon Persson and his wife Brita Ersdotter in a family of eight (four sons and two daughters). Due to repeated displacement to smaller outfields deeper into the forest land, the whole family left for United States in April 1881. At the arrival in New York City the family gave up their Swedish surnames and adopted the

family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

Hegg (derived from Heggesta, the name of their Swedish area of origin). The family settled in the Swedish settlements at the southern shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and the fourteen-year-old Eric Hegg took up the profession as a photographer's disciple in

Cloquet, Minnesota Cloquet ( ) is a city in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States, at the junction of Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highway 33. Part of the city lies within the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and serves as one of the reservation's three admi ...

and later opened his own studio in

Washburn, Wisconsin Washburn is a city in Bayfield County, in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 2,051 at the 2020 census. The city is just east of and adjacent to the Town of Washburn. It is in northern Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Superior's Che ...

.The Dream of America – "Guldgrävarfotografen Eric Hegg (The Gold Digger Photographer Eric Hegg)", TV series by Per Eric Nordquist, 1996 Tlingit and Aleut baskets and beadwork, ca 1898 (HEGG 93)

Tlingit and Aleut baskets and beadwork, ca 1898 (HEGG 93)

In 1888, Eric Hegg settled in the Swedish community outside

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (locat ...

and together with his brother Peter he opened a new studio. After some years depicting

foresters A forester is a person who practises forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Foresters manage forests to ...

and farmers in the region the city got

gold fever A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Ze ...

after another Swedish-American man returned rich from the Klondike Gold Rush. This sparked a wave of migration of young men to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

and Northwestern Canada. The Hegg brothers followed in their trail to open up new grounds for their photographic business.

Klondike Gold Rush

In October 1897 Hegg arrived in

after a short stop in

Dyea Dyea ( ) is a former town in the U.S. state of Alaska. A few people live on individual small homesteads in the valley; however, it is largely abandoned. It is located at the convergence of the Taiya River and Taiya Inlet on the south side of th ...

. He immediately opened a studio in the town. He was joined a year later by his brother and a friend of the two brothers, Peter Andersson. The following spring another Swedish-American photographer, Per Edvard Larss, came and joined the business. Train and tracks of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, ca 1899 (HEGG 386)

Train and tracks of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, ca 1899 (HEGG 386)

The arrivals led to a series of expeditions along The Chilkoot Trail and further north and west to Dawson and

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

via

taking numerous pictures along the way. Hegg built a darkroom on his boat he used when travelling along the river Klondike. The Hegg brothers together with their companions opened studios in Dawson and sold portraits to the frontier men and they also claimed land and participated in the mining. Baptist Church, Skagway, Alaska, ca 1899 (HEGG 71)

Baptist Church, Skagway, Alaska, ca 1899 (HEGG 71)

In 1899, after a year in Yukon, Hegg returned to Skagway leaving his studio in Dawson to his business companion Larss and another famous Klondike photographer, Joseph E.N. Duclos ( Larss & Duclos). Hegg travelled to New York the same year to show his pictures at a gallery, while his brother returned to Bellingham to manage their old studio. When returning to Alaska, Eric Hegg travelled to Nome visiting other Swedes working in the area and took pictures of the social life and the town. Among the customers were the "Three Lucky Swedes" who were first in Nome to become rich by mining. Their portraits were taken by Hegg and he opened his largest studio so far. His nomadic lifestyle bore its toll and his relation with his wife Ella became strained. In 1902 his marriage was finalized by a bitter divorce and the studio in Skagway went to his wife who sold it and along with all the negatives. Since the stamp was removed by the buyers it is difficult to identify many of the late Alaska pictures as Hegg's. Before leaving Alaska for a short time in Hawaii, Hegg lived in Nome and then in Cordova, where he worked for Guggenheim's

Copper River and Northwestern Railway The Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) consisted of two rail lines, the Copper River line and the Northwestern line. Michael James Heney had secured the right-of-way up the Copper River in 1904. He started building the railway from Co ...

until 1918.

Death

Hegg returned to

to move in with his son and once again he joined his brother to work in their old studio. But the partnership did not last for long. While his brother took up farming, Eric Hegg kept on the business until 1946. He died in San Diego, CA on December 13, 1947.Death Certificate #3701, Registrar # 2748, County of San Diego

Legacy

His work has been collected by the daughter of the friend from Skagway, Peter Andersson, and later donated to Archive of

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. The 1957

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

documentary '' City of Gold'' made extensive use of photographs of the Gold Rush by Hegg, from his University of Washington archives. Dawson City: Frozen Time also uses his images.

Photo gallery

File:Miner and his dogs outside of cabin, Nome, Alaska, ca 1900 (HEGG 324).jpeg, Miner and his dogs ca. 1900 File:Indian Houses, Cordova Hegg.jpg, "Indian houses" in Cordova File:Chilkoot Tramway2.jpg, Chilkoot Pass Tramway File:Chilkoot pass summit 1898.png, Summit of Chilkoot Pass File:Klondikers with dogsled and supplies at Canyon, Chilkoot Trail, Alaska, 1897 (HEGG 240).jpeg, Klondikers with dogsled and supplies File:Railroad construction Eyak Lake, Alaska Hegg.jpg, Railroad construction at Eyak Lake, Alaska File:Haida village in Alaska EA Hegg.jpg, Haida village in Alaska File:Surf and ships at Nome EA Hegg.jpg, Beach at Nome, Alaska File:Dawson Yukon 1899.jpg, Dawson City, Yukon File:Nome-school-1901.jpg, School children in Nome, Alaska File:Packtrain on the White Pass Trail between Log Cabin and Bennett Lake, British Columbia, ca 1898 (HEGG 554).jpeg,

Pack train A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of ...

on the White Pass Trail between Log Cabin and Bennett Lake, British Columbia, ca 1898

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hegg, Eric 1867 births 1947 deaths American Lutherans American photographers People from Bellingham, Washington People from Cloquet, Minnesota People from Dawson City People from Hälsingland People from Nome, Alaska People from the Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska People from Washburn, Wisconsin People of the Klondike Gold Rush Swedish emigrants to the United States Swedish Lutherans 19th-century Swedish photographers