Fri, February 17, 2023
Alaska History Day is coming up in April – please consider volunteering a few hours of your time as a judge! What is Alaska History Day? It is the Alaska statewide contest for National History Day. NHD is a year-long academic program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for 6th- to 12th-grade students. By participating in NHD, students become writers, filmmakers, web designers, playwrights and artists as they create unique contemporary expressions of history. When is it? Judging...
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Fri, October 21, 2022
A new volume in the Eyewitness Booklet Series has just been completed by Chris Allan, historian for the National Park Service. It is Eyewitness Series #8: Burning for Yukon Gold: The Hidden World of Underground Placer Mining in Alaska and the Klondike, 1898-1901. It is a collection of photographs and first-person accounts revealing how gold miners risked their lives for buried treasure. All eight booklets in the series are available on the Eyewitness Booklet Series page on the Alaska Historical Society's...
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Fri, October 21, 2022
The Alaska Historical Society advocates for history, often with state officeholders. In September 2022, the Society sent five questions to candidates running for Governor and State House and Senate seats about programs and issues of concern to us. Below are responses we received from the following candidates: For Governor: Bill Walker and Heidi Drygas For Senate: Cathy Giessel – District E Elvi Gray-Jackson – District G Loki Tobin – District I Forrest Dunbar – District J Bill Wielechowski – District...
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Sat, October 15, 2022
The Alaska Historical Society presented their annual awards recognizing accomplishments in history at their annual business meeting on October 14, 2022. Longtime Alaska journalist and author Tom Kizzia has been honored as Historian of the Year. Kizzia, a former Anchorage Daily News reporter and author of the recent book, Cold Mountain Path, was recognized both for his current book and long career documenting Alaska history. “Through lyrical writing and solid historical research, the book tells the story of McCarthy, one...
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Mon, September 19, 2022
In recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in December 1971, the UAF Oral History Program has just launched the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Project Jukebox online interactive website that combines oral history recordings, film, photos and documents to tell the story behind the fight for passage of ANCSA, its role in Alaska’s history, and its legacy (https://jukebox.uaf.edu/ancsa). The ANCSA legislation, which passed Congress and was signed into law by...
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