Chapman, John W. (John Wight), 1858-1939

Reverend John Wight Chapman, an Episcopal missionary, arrived in Anvik in 1887 and lived there 43 years until his retirement in 1930. While working in Alaska, Rev. Chapman photographed people of the Anvik area, including Alaska Natives, prospectors, mail carriers and local life. A portrait of Rev. Chapman and some of his photographs may also be found in his book "A Camp On the Yukon."

In 1887 John Wight Chapman (1858-1939) helped to found the first Alaskan Episcopal mission, the Christ Church Mission at Anvik, where he served until his retirement in 1930. In the course of his pastoral work in the Anvik region, he devised an orthography for Deg Hit'an, the local Athapascan language, and recorded local stories and other ethnographic information. Upon retirement to New York City, he did volunteer work for the City Mission Society and served as warden of the Church Army Training School.

Adelaide May Seely Chapman (1861-ca. 1960), the daughter of Henry M. Seely and Adelaide E. Hamblin Seely, was born in South Onondaga, New York. She was raised in Middlebury, Vermont, where her father was a professor of geology and chemistry at Middlebury College. She became engaged to John W. Chapman in 1887, shortly before his departure for missionary work in Alaska. The couple married in the fall of 1893, when John returned on his first furlough, and traveled to Alaska together the following spring. Their children, Henry Hamblin and Ada Charis, were born in 1895 and 1900, respectively. May assisted her husband in his work at Christ Church Mission, Anvik, Alaska, until 1930, when they retired to New York. May's account of her years in Anvik, titled "Chapters Reminiscent of Life in Alaska, 1894-1930," was never published.