Keeping time in Alaska: National directives, local response

ALASKA HISTORICAL SOCIETY by Frank Norris > read

Until fairly recently, people throughout the world gave little or no thought to measuring the time of day. Farmers, ranchers, hunters, gatherers, and other subsistence users rose with the sun and carried on their daily activities until dusk. When the sun set, some people responded by lighting a fire or a candle, while others went straight to bed. By the mid-eighteenth century, when the first European visited Alaska’s shores, clockmakers were making timepieces that could trace the hours and minutes with remarkable accuracy. Most people, however, cared little about the exactness of time; in 1790, for example, fewer than 10 percent of Americans had a clock of any kind, and most of those clocks had no minute hand.

Frank Norris

CREDIT: Getty images