Category: 49 History

Wed, June 25, 2014

The First Salmon to Fly

The tradition…or, um, marketing gimmick…of flying the first Copper River salmon of the season to Seattle makes for good news copy every spring.If this photograph from the May 1929 issue of Pacific Fisherman is to be believed, the very first Alaska salmon flown directly to Seattle by airplane was this 34-pound king that made the trip from Juneau on April 21 that year.According to the magazine, “While it is not expected that aircraft will be a regular factor in the... (Read More)

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Wed, June 18, 2014

Jeanice Welsh, Alaska cannerywoman

(The following is taken from “Mrs. Jeanice Welsh Killed in Yakutat Earthquake,” Pacific Fisherman (August 1958): 47.  The earthquake in which Jeanice Welsh perished also triggered a landslide and the subsequent giant wave at Lituya Bay. Thanks goes to James Mackovjac for sharing this.)Mrs. Jeanice Welsh Killed in Yakutat Earthquake. Mrs. Jeanice Welsh Walton, who was generally known in the salmon industry as Jeanice Welsh, and as the only woman who ever owned and personally operated a salmon canning business, died in... (Read More)

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Sun, June 01, 2014

History in a Can

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... (Read More)

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Fri, May 16, 2014

Halibut Prospecting in 1911 and 1912 – Part One: Ash Fall and Halibut Feasts

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... (Read More)

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Sun, April 27, 2014

From Tents to Towers: A Century of Maps of Alaska’s Largest City

“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... (Read More)

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