Thu, April 11, 2013
By: Anjuli GranthamLast summer, the Baranov Museum in Kodiak taught a history and film workshop for middle school and high school students. These students created mini-films about topics related to the history of Filipinos in Kodiak. Kodiak has a large Filipino population; Filipinos comprise around 30% of the population of the city. Most of them were born in the Philippines and came to Kodiak through their service with the US Coast Guard or to work at a local cannery. Yet...
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Sat, April 06, 2013
Pacific Fisherman, a fishing industry journal published for six decades in the early- to mid-twentieth century, was a vital source of information for fishermen in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Today, its countless thousands of articles, photographs, advertisements, and data on various species is an incredible resource for scholars in several fields, historians included.The Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington recently digitized more than five thousand pages of Pacific Fisherman. The collection is available at:http://content.lib.washington.edu/pacfishweb/index.htmlAccording to Special Collections at...
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Mon, April 01, 2013
By Katie Ringsmuth“We have observed several parties of youngsters playing base, a certain game of ball….Let us go forth awhile and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms….the game of ball is glorious.”—Walt Whitman Baseball players in Anchorage,July 4, 1915 (UAA-hmc-0778-5-14)April 1, 2013 is Opening Day, the start of a new baseball season. It’s hard for a historian not to love baseball, for our national pastime is steeped in tradition. In the PBS documentary Baseball,...
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Wed, March 06, 2013
In recognition of Seward's Day this month, we're posting the following column by Tom Kizzia that was first published in the Anchorage Daily News and is reprinted here with the author’s permission. Kizzia’s book “Pilgrim's Wilderness” will be published later this year.In the years just after the American Civil War, were bribes paid to win congressional approval for the purchase of Alaska? And did the American politician credited by history with making the deal know about the payments?The answer to...
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Mon, February 25, 2013
A continuation of the story of Melvin Dempsey, a half-African-American, half Cherokee prospector who contributed much to the establishment of early Valdez.by Andrew GoldsteinWith George Hazelet and A.J. Meals, Dempsey discovered gold on Chistochina River in the fall of 1899. Starting for the interior via the glacier route, he arrived at Chisna, placing numerous claims along the Chistochina River between 1899 and 1901. In March 1898, Dempsey became the center of a controversy. Since 1897, the Valdez town site had...
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