Joseph E. M. Duclos (1863 – 1917)
Joseph Duclos was born in Quebec and learned his photography skills in Sherbrooke. He first worked in a studio in Maine. He and his wife, Émilie Saint-Hilare, arrived in Dawson in 1898 via St. Michael.1) He worked as a miner on Lovett Gulch. In April 1899, he joined Per Edward Larss and established the Larss and Duclos photography studio in Dawson. Duclos specialized in studio portraits while Larss photographed the streets and mining activities. They sold film and supplies and advertised thousands of stock images of the gold rush and the goldfields.2)
The Larss and Duclos studio prospered but the men were working twelve to fourteen hours a day. The studio had competition in Dawson including Asahel Curtis who took memorable photographers but never established a studio, Frank LaRoche whose photographs of the stampede were on sale in Dawson, H. J. Goetzman whose Dawson studio took portraits and special event photographs, and the Kinsey Brothers who had a studio at Grand Forks on Bonanza Creek. Larss became more interested in mining than photography and in early September 1903 sold his interest in their studio to Duclos.3) Duclos wrote to Larss in 1905 that he had competition in the portrait business from Edward Adams and Mrs. Edith Goetzman. Duclos sold his studio to E.O. Ellingsen in 1912.4)
Duclos continued to take photographs. In 1914, he took pictures during a ball organized by the IODE in honour of the King’s birthday. His wife watched from the balcony. The Duclos’ had thirteen children but only two survived.5) Duclos was employed as a general delivery clerk at the Dawson City post office in 1915/16. Joseph Duclos died of pneumonia after undergoing surgery in Alaska.6) He was living in in Dawson when he died of postoperative complications.7)