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History · Wainwright

Wainwright was first counted by the census in 1890

Most of Wainwright was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1955 on, and the census since 1890.

1890first census
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Wainwright’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Wainwright began

When was Wainwright founded?

1890

Wainwright first appears in the census in 1890.

First census: 72 in 18902020 census: 628136 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Wainwright’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1940 and 1950, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · People over time

Wainwright, census by census

01002003004005006007001900192019401960198020002020341 in 1940Low: 227

Lost a third of its people between 1940 and 1950, then more than doubled.

12 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wainwright’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Wainwright came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Wainwright.

Read it all →

The Wainwright area has long been inhabited by the Iñupiat, who called the region Ulġuniq. The Iñupiat were hunter-gatherers who participated in subsistence hunting and fishing, including the whaling of bowhead whales.

The English name Wainwright comes from nearby Wainwright Inlet, which was named after Lieutenant John Wainwright a by British naval officer in 1826. The present village was established in 1904, when the Alaska Native Service built a school there. Wainwright was incorporated as a city in 1962.

Olgoonik Corporation, Wainwright's Alaska Native village corporation, was established in 1973 under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Wainwright, 1904 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1904Post officeThe Wainwright post office opens
  3. 1917In the archiveAlaska
  4. 1922In the archiveRoald Amundsen and a pilot standing in front of a seaplane on the beach at Wainwright, Al…
  5. 1955On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1998In the archiveAWI-Aerial Map
  7. 21st century
  8. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 628
By decade

Wainwright, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s–1920s4 items
Alaska1917AlaskaAlaska1917AlaskaRoald Amundsen and a pilot standing in front of a seaplane on the beach at Wainwright, Alaska, 1922 or 19231922Roald Amundsen and a pilot standing in front of a sea…Roald Amundsen writing at a table and smoking a pipe, Wainwright, Alaska, 1922 or 19231922Roald Amundsen writing at a table and smoking a pipe,…
1930s–1980snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1990s1 item
AWI-Aerial Map1998AWI-Aerial MapMap
Today7 recent
Bertholf outreach 120907-G-VS714-2552012Bertholf outreach 120907-G-VS714-255Bertholf outreach 120907-G-VS714-2362012Bertholf outreach 120907-G-VS714-236Bertholf ourteach 120907-G-VS714-1412012Bertholf ourteach 120907-G-VS714-141A U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Los Angeles and embarked aboard maritim…2012A U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter assigned …Wainwright Alaska2010Wainwright AlaskaWainwright2008WainwrightAKMap-doton-Wainwright2004AKMap-doton-Wainwright
On the map

Wainwright on the map in 1955

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wainwright.

Wainwright on the 1955 USGS map1955Wainwright C-2 sheet · 1:63,360

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Wainwright.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Alaska
Retake this viewAlaska, 1917

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Wainwright’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Wainwright’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewAlaska: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Wainwright’s history

What year was Wainwright founded?

The Wainwright post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1904.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.