Sophie E. Porter

Sophie Porter was a journalist and amateur photographer, of San Francisco, California.1) She was the wife of William Porter, the captain of the whaler Jessie H. Freeman. She published a number of stories about her life at Herschel Island in 1894/95.2)

The New Bedford Whaling Museum has a collection of papers relating to Sophie E. Porter's whaling voyage with her husband William P.S. Porter, to the western Arctic aboard the steam bark Jesse H. Freeman in 1894, wintering at Herschel Island, and her return trip to San Francisco aboard the steam schooner Jeanie, a supply vessel for the Pacific Steam Whaling Co., in 1896. Topics in her articles include life at Herschel Island, the indigenous people of Alaska and their customs, and the whaler's celebration of Christmas in 1895.3)

1) , 3)
New Bedford Whaling Museum – Research Library. 2013 web site: http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/collection/data/76817807
2)
Barbara E. Kelcey, Alone in Silence: European Women in the Canadian North before 1940. Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2001: 164.