The photographs of John E. Thwaites, a mail clerk sailing throughout Alaska in the early 20th century, offer researchers a valuable glimpse into the maritime, Native American, and industrial history of the region. However, access to this collection is limited due to unprofessional processing that took place decades ago, arbitrarily sorting the photographs into subjects and subsequently losing the gestalt. My project remedies this by intellectually arranging the collection to express the course of Thwaites’ life and work in Alaska. In addition, the creation of a descriptive finding aid and the digitization of the images will enable searchable access to the collection from anywhere in the world. After languishing for decades, this highly compelling collection will gain new appreciation and access and utilization will be more possible than ever before.