AHS Blog
Importance of Archives
In 2018, the Alaska Historical Society (AHS) made protecting our state’s archives its advocacy priority. As part of this effort, AHS launched the Archives Video Project to highlight how archive collections are the irreplaceable basic sources of historical research. By emphasizing how collections are used in research, these videos hope to bring attention to the rich resources in the state’s archives. Public support for archives is a continuing priority of the Alaska Historical Society.
The following video testimonials from researchers around the state emphasize the key role archives have played in their work:
Dr. William Schneider on the Importance of Archives
University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Emeritus Dr. William Schneider talks about researching and examining historical photographs in archives. Schneider’s book “The Tanana Chiefs: Native Rights and Western Law,” was published in 2018. This video (copyright Alaska Historical Society, 2018) was made possible through contributions of private individuals. For more information, please contact William Schneider: wsschneider@alaska.edu
with captions: https://youtu.be/
without captions: https://youtu.be/
Dr. Mary Ehrlander on the Importance of Archives
Dr. Mary F. Ehrlander, professor of History and co-director of Arctic and Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, talks about her experience using archives to write her 2017 book “Walter Harper, Alaska Native Son.” The biography covers the life and story of Walter Harper, the son of a Koyukon-Athabascan mother and an Irish immigrant father, who in 1913 became the first person to reach the summit of Denali, North America’s highest mountain. This video (copyright Alaska Historical Society, 2018) was made possible through contributions of private individuals. For more information, please contact William Schneider: wsschneider@alaska.edu
with captions: https://youtu.be/
without captions: https://youtu.be/
Professor Rob Prince on the Importance of Archives
Associate Professor Rob Prince of the Communication and Journalism Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks talks about how his students have been using archives to delve into an ongoing mystery on campus. Archaeologist Otto Geist may have buried several mammoth tusks on the UAF campus during the 1930s. Where are those tusks today? Professor Prince and his students searched the archives for clues. This video (copyright Alaska Historical Society, 2018) was made possible through contributions of private individuals. For more information, please contact William Schneider: wsschneider@alaska.edu
with captions: https://youtu.be/
without captions: https://youtu.be/
Dr. Jennifer Stone on the Importance of Archives
Dr. Jennifer Stone, Professor of English at the University of Alaska Anchorage, works with students at the UAA/APU Consortium Library’s Archives and Special Collections. Dr. Stone has integrated the archives into her curriculum in creative and innovative ways. Watch how her students have responded to this approach, and learn more about how the archives enrich the classroom experience of Alaska’s students. This video (copyright Alaska Historical Society, 2019) was made possible through contributions of private individuals and with the assistance of Ian Hartman, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alaska Anchorage. For more information, please contact William Schneider: wsschneider@alaska.edu.
without captions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvYbAxf5VQA
(for auto-generated captions, click on the cc button in the lower-right corner of the YouTube screen)
Call for Papers Deadline Extended to June 30, 2020
2020 Alaska Historical Society Annual Conference
October 14 to 17, 2020
Sitka, Alaska
“Place and Power”
Sitka from water, showing the Three Sisters in the background. Sitka Harbor-7, Alaska State Library Photo Collection.
Due to the Corona virus pandemic situation, we have extended the deadline for paper proposals until June 30, 2020. At this time, we are still moving forward with plans for our conference to be held in person. If it turns out this is not possible, there will still be an opportunity for people to present in a virtual video conference context (more detail to follow). So, we encourage people to please submit presentation proposals.
Call for Papers
“Place and Power” is the theme for the 2020 Alaska Historical Society Conference to be held in Sitka, October 14-17. Gathering in Sitka while the community commemorates the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States provides a fitting location for exploring larger questions of power relations over time, such as how governmental laws and policies impact Alaskans and shape our understanding of history and identity.
Millennia of Tlingit history are marked in clan houses, place names and clan histories intimately connected with specific places. The power relationship between the Russian American Company colony at Sitka and the Tlingit people is represented in the Fort Site from the Battle of 1804, now the Sitka National Historical Park, and in surviving structures such as the Russian Bishop’s House and St Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral. The struggle between Alaska Native people and the U.S. government is also represented in the history of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, Sheldon Jackson School, and Mt. Edgecumbe High School.
Conference sessions are being planned on Women’s Suffrage, the 50th Anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), and the Legacy of Richard Nelson. The West, including Alaska, was ahead of the nation in recognizing the rights of women, thereby challenging us to ask how place influenced attitudes and what effect the Progressive Movement had on Alaskans and their views on women’s rights. Next year, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of ANCSA, a major political settlement with profound consequences for Native sovereignty, subsistence rights, and governmental regulations on land use. The death of noted anthropologist and nature writer Richard Nelson provides a chance to examine a legacy of recording Native relationships to place and discuss how spiritual lessons learned from elders influenced his own understanding of place.
In addition to the planned sessions, papers on all topics related to Alaska history are welcome.
Presentations are limited to 20 minutes, and all presenters must register for the conference. To submit a proposal, please send your presentation title, an abstract of no more than 100 words, and two sentences about yourself to Rachel Mason, Program Chair, rachel_mason@nps.gov. Proposals are due June 30, 2020.
Click here for pdf of the Call for Papers
Tundra Talks Now Online
The eight Tundra Talks and interviews recorded during the 2019-2020 Tundra Vision Lecture Series at Loussac Library in Anchorage, Alaska are now available online at a new site, Tundra Sounds. You can listen to the audio recording or access images, films and other historical material. Be sure to open the link in Google Chrome.
The site was designed and developed by University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) student Dylan DeBuse, who also conducted most of the interviews. Tundra Vision is hoping to include additional stories in the future, so stay tuned!
Thanks go to: UAA’s Paul Wasko for providing the digital platform for Tundra Sounds and to Dylan’s brother, Derek DeBuse, for developing the site’s original artwork; the Anchorage Library Foundation, The Alaska Humanities Forum, The Atwood Foundation, Sarah Preskitt and the Loussac Library staff; and this year’s terrific speakers: Marie Acemah, Angela Schmidt, Arlene Schumland & Gwen Higgins, Tim Troll, Libby Bakalar, Scott Jensen & Carolyn Hall, Rhonda McBride, and Jeff Landfield.
Thanks also go out to the Tundra Vision community, who attend the lectures and support the endeavor to bring people together through history—even if that means doing that apart right now…
Katherine Ringsmuth, PhD
Tundra Vision
https://tundravision.digication.com/Tundra
Research Opportunity in Arctic & Northern Studies at UAF
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is recruiting one student for the Master of Arts in Arctic & Northern Studies to research the Copper Valley School, a Catholic boarding school that was located near Glennallen, Alaska.
Benefits:
Tuition, monthly stipend, and health insurance.
About this Opportunity:
A partnership among Arctic & Northern Studies (ACNS) and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Copper Valley School Association (CVSA) is sponsoring one student to complete the M.A. in Arctic & Northern Studies and to research the history, organization and culture of the Copper Valley School.
The selected student will be a full-time Arctic & Northern Studies M.A. student pursuing either the Northern History or Individualized Concentration. The student will complete the required coursework, comprehensive exams, and project focusing on providing a historical narrative on the Copper Valley School. Throughout the two-year degree, the student will be on an assistantship that will provide tuition, health insurance, and a monthly stipend during the academic year.
All applicants to the M.A. in Arctic & Northern Studies must have a cumulative undergraduate GPA and an undergraduate major GPA of 3.0 or higher. Only one student will be selected for this specific funding opportunity. For more information about the M.A. program, visit: https://www.uaf.edu/arctic/
About the Copper Valley School:
The Copper Valley School was a Catholic boarding school located near Glennallen, Alaska. In 1956, it accepted its first students – orphans from Holy Cross. It was open for fifteen years, growing to serve more than 200 students annually from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, both Catholics and non- Catholics, and Natives and non-Natives. Although the school has been long closed, several alumni meet annually in August for a school reunion. For more information about the school, visit: http://coppervalleyschool.org/
Contact:
If interested in this opportunity, please contact Dr. Brandon Boylan, Co-Director, Arctic & Northern Studies, at bmboylan@alaska.edu
Covid-19 – Two year Unfinished Project #1 Completed: F/V Age of Reason
By Kathy Peavey, Craig Alaska
Mary Ida Henrikson of Ketchikan gifted an original painting by former Craig resident and author, Ballard Hadman, to the Craig Public Library. The painting by Ballard was gifted to former Thorne Bay and Ketchikan author and her friend, Margaret Bell (niece of City of Craig founder, Craig Miller). It was Margaret who gave the painting to Mary. When Mary was in Craig in 2018 promoting her new book The Mystery of the Fire Trees of Southeast Alaska, she brought the painting with her from Ketchikan and gave it to the Craig Public Library. Mary mentioned that there is the Ketchikan Pond Reef Road legend surrounding the name on the boat. Some speculate that perhaps Ballard didn’t finish the painting. Henrikson mentions that Margaret Bell told her when Ballard was with Margaret one evening the two were having a glass of wine or a martini and it is said that the name was painted on when they were visiting and possibly under the influence of their drink. Regardless of when the name was put on, it’s exciting that the boat influenced Ballard as much as it did. Ballard writes in her book, As the Sailor Loves the Sea:
My first sight of Fishermen’s Cove gave me a painting, which is peculiarly difficult to put into words but ready-made for canvas. At the head of the cove, heeled over with her forefoot to the beach, abandoned to the endless tide, derelict and rotten, lay what had once been a brave hull. Along her bows in fanciful lettering was her provocative name, the Age of Reason. To be sure, it gave me deep pleasure to find the Age of Reason rotting on the beach.
Someday when you are out of isolation, the painting can be seen at the Craig Public Library. It hangs to the left of the librarian desk.
Ballard Hadman a resident of Craig and Ketchikan was born Virginia Diana Ballard in 1908 in Laramie, Wyoming. She attended Corcoran Institute of Art in Washington D.C. and the Winold Reiss School of Art in New York City. Ballard arrived in Craig, Alaska in 1937, following her mother, Mimi, to come work with her brothers, John and Charles, on their fishing boat the F/V Diana. It wasn’t long until Ballard put out her memoirs in the Craig town favorite, As The Sailor Loves the Sea. When Ballard arrived in Craig she wrote:
I should always like to land in a strange port on a strange island in the dark; the impact of the morning is so fresh, so wholly new. From the top of the highest hill on the island, where a long bed of iris stood tall and proud, I first saw the polished blue sweep of Big Harbor, the warm deep green of Saint John’s Island with its own infant island, Little Saint John, tucked close to its shoulder.
After arriving in Craig on the steam ship Cordova, Hadman made her way to the fish packer the F/V Lawrence P and caught a ride out to “Hole in the Wall.” Once there, Hadman met up with her brothers who unloaded her onto the beach and set her up in a rustic cabin until they went out fishing. (Remnants of the cabin can be seen on the northern end of San Lorenzo island.)
Hadman’s book has many unique hand-drawn and painted scenes of the outer coast, fishing boats and locals such as “Shorty,” Many local historians consider her book a “must have” whether on their boat, in their remote cabin, or on their shelves in Craig. Her book can be found at the Craig Public Library, as well.
Ballard became infatuated with the beauty of the fishing landscape and enjoyed painting scenes that can be found in her book. Her most noted love is the painting of Cape Addington. Hadman writes: “It was that first season that I began to know Cape Addington, my first and best love among all the seaward capes. …To my mind, and to John’s as well, the most beautiful cape in Alaska.
Like most women who came to Alaska to seek an adventure, Hadman not only became a proficient fisherwoman, author and artist, but became involved in the community of Craig as a member of the Craig Women’s Club. In 1946, she was honored as a “Woman of Achievement” in Seattle by the honorary journalistic sorority, Theta Sigma Phi.
End note:
When I first saw the painting in the Library, I decided to find out about the history of it. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed researching and learning about the painting. When researching the boat, I found out before she came to rest at Fishermans cove (South Cove) in Craig she was once considered to be one of the larger boats in Klawock and owned by two fishermen from Klawock: J. Cook and S. Davis. Thanks to Mary Henrikson for her help and for donating the painting back to Craig. I started this research in 2018. This is the first Covid-19 isolation project that I have finished. Kathy Peavey, March 28, 2020.
Resources cited:
Tewkesbury’s Who’s Who in Alaska
O.M. Salisbury, As the Sailor Loves the Sea
Zee Hawks
2020 Annual Conference — Call for Papers
2020 Alaska Historical Society Annual Conference
October 14 to 17, 2020
Sitka, Alaska
“Place and Power”
Sitka from water, showing the Three Sisters in the background. Sitka Harbor-7, Alaska State Library Photo Collection.
Call for Papers
“Place and Power” is the theme for the 2020 Alaska Historical Society Conference to be held in Sitka, October 14-17. Gathering in Sitka while the community commemorates the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States provides a fitting location for exploring larger questions of power relations over time, such as how governmental laws and policies impact Alaskans and shape our understanding of history and identity.
Millennia of Tlingit history are marked in clan houses, place names and clan histories intimately connected with specific places. The power relationship between the Russian American Company colony at Sitka and the Tlingit people is represented in the Fort Site from the Battle of 1804, now the Sitka National Historical Park, and in surviving structures such as the Russian Bishop’s House and St Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral. The struggle between Alaska Native people and the U.S. government is also represented in the history of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, Sheldon Jackson School, and Mt. Edgecumbe High School.
Conference sessions are being planned on Women’s Suffrage, the 50th Anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), and the Legacy of Richard Nelson. The West, including Alaska, was ahead of the nation in recognizing the rights of women, thereby challenging us to ask how place influenced attitudes and what effect the Progressive Movement had on Alaskans and their views on women’s rights. Next year, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of ANCSA, a major political settlement with profound consequences for Native sovereignty, subsistence rights, and governmental regulations on land use. The death of noted anthropologist and nature writer Richard Nelson provides a chance to examine a legacy of recording Native relationships to place and discuss how spiritual lessons learned from elders influenced his own understanding of place.
In addition to the planned sessions, papers on all topics related to Alaska history are welcome.
Presentations are limited to 20 minutes, and all presenters must register for the conference. To submit a proposal, please send your presentation title, an abstract of no more than 100 words, and two sentences about yourself to Rachel Mason, Program Chair, rachel_mason@nps.gov. Proposals are due May 31, 2020.
Click here for pdf of the Call for Papers
