Sun, June 01, 2014
By: Steve Henrikson, Curator of Collections at the Alaska State Museum (Note: This article was republished from the Alaska State Museum's Bulletin 41 with the permission of the author.) Though famous for our isolation and uniqueness, the scattering of Alaskan material culture around the globe shows the extent of our engagement in the world economy. Years ago I was in Manhattan, on the “museum crawl,” and took a few minutes to browse an antique mall in the Garment District. The...
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Fri, May 16, 2014
by Anjuli Grantham In 1911 and 1912, Kodiak businessman W.J. Erskine set out to answer a potentially lucrative question: did the waters around Kodiak have enough halibut to justify the creation of a Kodiak halibut fishery? One dead engineer, one volcanic eruption, a greenhorn crew, and 170,000 pounds of frozen halibut later, Erskine had an answer. W.J. Erskine, Kodiak entrepreneur (Kodiak Historical Society, P-368-40) Within the Baranov Museum’s collection is Erskine’s remarkable report, outlining the goals, the methods, and...
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Sun, April 27, 2014
“The language of maps is integral to our lives. We have achieved something if we have put ourselves (our town) on the map.” ~Simon Garfield, On the Map By Katherine Ringsmuth In January 2014, my team and I received an Anchorage Centennial Community grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Anchorage Centennial Commission to produce Tents to Towers: A Century of Maps of Alaska’s Largest City. The final project, targeted for completion in 2015, will tell the story of...
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Thu, April 10, 2014
by Katherine Ringsmuth It’s that time of year again, when umpires across the nation cry the long-waited phrase, “Play Ball!” We, far northerners, have gone to great lengths to bring the game of baseball to Alaska and its surrounding Arctic environment. However, few images of the game from the far north capture baseball’s more traditional themes, such as rebirth, pastoralism, and of course, the ‘boys of summer.’ “Winter at Herschel Island ca. 1984. Note the baseball and soccer fields...
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Wed, April 09, 2014
By: James Mackovjak The late Bob Thorstenson, one of the founders of Icicle Seafoods, once told me his favorite seafood was canned pink salmon. Bob had good taste.Canned salmon, which has been produced in Alaska since 1878, is the most nutritious and consumer-friendly of all of Alaska’s seafood. While the product is often considered poor cousin to skinless, boneless salmon fillets, canned salmon is by far the more nutritious of the two. Yes, both canned salmon...
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