Kinne, A. B. (Albert Barnes)

Albert Barnes Kinne operated photography studios in San Francisco and the Alaskan towns of Nome and Council. In the early 1900s, he created photographs documenting the gold rush in Alaska's Seward Peninsula.

Prior to living in Alaska, Albert Kinne was actively engaged in public affairs in San Francisco California. He arrived in Nome around 1900, and according to the Polk's Alaska Yukon Directory, was in partnership with photograher, B.B. Dobbs as Dobbs and Kinne, Photographers and Photo Supplies, from around 1903 to 1905/6. He may also have been associated with the Wild Goose Mining and Trading Co. He went to Council, Alaska, between 1906 and 1910, and established a photographic business in addition to being in charge of the telephone exchange and post office. He was appointed post master in 1914. In 1921, he married Nellie M. They lived in Council City until around 1924, when Kinne returned to Nome and re-entered the mercantile business, temporarily leaving Nellie in Council. Although his business was reportedly thriving, Albert Kinne died in Nome at age 72 on Sept. 20, 1925, of self-inflicted wounds. Nellie soon abandoned their home in Council along with hundreds of his photographs. In 1941, a visitor found the deteriorating boxes of 8 x 10 glass plate negatives. [Information from William Halliday and The Alaska Weekly, 1925.].

Albert Barnes Kinne was born around June 1, 1853. He resided in San Francisco, where he was actively engaged in public affairs and ran an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Kinne also operated a photography studio in San Francisco, located at 1040 Shotwell Street. Around 1900, he relocated to Nome, Alaska, where he set up a new studio and worked with the Wild Goose Mining and Trading Company. By 1903, he had formed a partnership with well-known Nome photographer Beverly B. Dobbs. Their studio, Dobbs & Kinne, was dissolved when Kinne moved eighty miles east to the gold mining camp of Council (aka Council City), and started a new photography business around 1905. In 1911, Beverly Dobbs sold the Nome studio and its glass negatives, including some made by Kinne, to photography entrepreneurs the Lomen Brothers, who created prints of the images under their own imprint.

Kinne took a job as manager of the Alaska Telephone & Telegraph Co. around 1907 and may also have held a teaching job in Council in 1910, when the U.S. Bureau of Education set up schools to educate native populations in the area. On Nov. 20, 1913, Kinne was appointed postmaster of Council. He married his wife, Nellie, in 1921, and continued to live and work in Council until Jan., 1925, when he returned to Nome and established a mercantile business. Although his business was reportedly thriving in Nome, he became despondent, possibly over ill health, and shot himself to death in Aug., 1925.

After Kinne's death, his wife apparently abandoned their home, along with hundreds of photographs contained there. In 1941, a visitor managed to save a few samples of the poorly preserved photographs and glass and nitrate negatives from the collapsing home.