Looking Back’s theme for 2025 features Thurston County area photographers, artists, and their subjects. James Wickersham is remembered for his Alaskan career as an ethnographer, judge, and politician. In his earlier career he lived in Washington Territory and befriended members of the Squaxin Tribe in Mud Bay, advocating on their behalf for the legitimacy of the Indian Shaker religion. As an amateur photographer he documented images of tribal members and living conditions. Image selected and captioned by Deborah Ross on behalf of the Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, https://olympiahistory.org.
1905 political poster, courtesy of Washington State Historical Society