Clarence Leroy Andrews

Born in Ohio in 1862 and raised in Oregon, Clarence Leroy Andrews first went to Alaska in 1892 and returned during the gold-rush era. Archival collections describing his life note that he worked in ranching and county offices before becoming closely involved with Alaska and Yukon history, photography, and writing.

Andrews later served with the Interior Department’s Bureau of Education and Reindeer Service in Alaska during the 1920s. He is best known as the author of The Story of Alaska, a popular history that was reprinted multiple times, and The Eskimo and His Reindeer in Alaska, a book based on his experience as a teacher and observer in northwestern Alaska.

Today he is remembered as a writer, collector, and photographer whose papers preserve a rich record of Alaska’s people, travel routes, and frontier life. His books reflect a strong storyteller’s interest in the region and helped bring Alaska’s past to a wider audience.