The Photos
The Wallie Funk photo collection holds nearly 100,000 images documenting life from the 1880s to 2002 in Washington state and beyond, with the bulk of photos taken on Fidalgo and Whidbey islands. Approximately 50,000 photos and negatives, as well as a number of Funk’s personal papers and artifacts, were deposited with the Anacortes Museum in 2003, while other parts of the collection went to the Island County Historical Museum in Coupeville, the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, and the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies in Bellingham.
Start of the Collection
Funk started his collection in 1950, just after purchasing the Anacortes American. The collection under the care of the Anacortes Museum includes photographs ranging from the 1880s to the 1990s given to Funk by local people, as well as nearly 3,600 Ferd Brady images and photos taken by Funk and his staff at the American.