Alaska State Library – Historical Collections

Scope and Contents A study of the images suggests that these are the photographs of a 1914 surveyor’s trip of the Alaskan Engineering Commission. Thomas Riggs Jr. and two other men surveyed the already existing Alaska Railroad outside Cordova, Alaska, and then the land for a possible expansion. The images suggest the trip started with a voyage off the coast of Oregon and Washington and continued to Cordova Bay, Alaska, with sea passage provided by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Photographs show...

Scope and Contents

The Alaskan Hotel collection contains 7 photographs (and 7 copies) of the Alaskan Hotel and the original proprietors. The donor has also included a short history of the McClosky family who built and ran the hotel. The Alaskan Hotel is still operating today.

Content Description This is a mixed collection documenting the growing relations between Alaska and Russia. The Siberia-Alaska cultural exchanges were made possible through the efforts of Dixie Belcher, other members of the Alaskan Performing Artists for Peace group, Russian and American government officials, local businesses, and interested parties. The scrapbook covers three of the cultural exchanges that came about as part of these individual’s efforts. The first exchange was a two week long tour in 1986,...

Scope and Contents The collection includes the original 1945 manuscript of the Symphony No. 1, the Alaskan Symphony. It also includes correspondence and memorabilia regarding the Symphony and its performance. Other memorabilia as well as a tape cassette and CD of the Alaskan Symphony are in the collection. A reel tape of Robert Keys Clark, Opus 39 concerto as well as an unidentified reel are included, probably because they were also composers considered for the 1975 simulcast. The simulcast notes state, “the...

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This is an information file of 254 commercial Alaskana slides from various sources.

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Typescript account includes a letter written by (Enoch) Hjalmar Furuhjelm in St. Petersburg, Russia, January 22, 1863, to his uncle.

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This manuscript is about the history of Alaska's newspapers from pre-Klondike, 1866 to post-statehood, 2000. The manuscript will be completed and published by Lew Williams, Jr. [Published in 2006 with new title: Bent Pins to Chains.]

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This ongoing collection includes miscellaneous local publications, brochures, booklets, maps and news clippings relative to Alaskan communities and culture. British Columbia and the Yukon Territories in Canada are also covered, though not extensively. Publications covering local culture and history are collected, including museums, trails, histories, historic homes, restaurants, hotels, events, the arts, tourist destinations.

Scope and Contents The album was created by Agnes Shattuck’s mother, “Minnie” Swineford, for her grandson, Allen Shattuck (Jr.), one of Agnes’ three children, who died at age 17 of spinal meningitis or encephalitis. (DeArmond, R.N., Shattuck & Grummet, Inc., a History, 1991).Most of the album documents a trip taken by Gov. and Mrs. Alfred P. Swineford aboard the U.S.S. Thetis during the summer of 1887. The photographs (41) include scenes of Yakutat, Nushaguk, Unalaska, Kodiak, Alaska Native...

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W.H. Case is the photographer. The images depict various aspects of Hoonah: canneries (interiors and exteriors), fish traps, fish processing, landscapes, seascapes, and individuals.