Collections

Reflecting Life in the North

The Anchorage Museum collection highlights the environment, people and cultures of the Circumpolar North, connecting people, building relationships and common understanding. Our vision is to grow the collection through material culture and works that help tell the story of the environment, people and cultures of Alaska and the Circumpolar North in a way that informs conversations and ideas about the North and its future. The collection has grown since the museum’s founding in 1968 to span over 26,000 objects and over 700,000 photographs and archives and honors the stories and legacies of these works now and for future generations. 

The museum's collections are divided into four areas: historical photographs; art; cultural and historical heritage items; and library resources. Historical photographs include images from the late 19th century through the recent past. The art collection represents a survey of visual arts in Alaska from the 18th century to the present, with important work by Alaska artists and a strong collection of contemporary Alaska Native art. The largest component of the material culture collections are objects of daily life of Athabascan, Inupiaq, Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Sugpiaq, Unangan, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida peoples. The museum's historical objects collection represents a survey of state and local history from the Russian-American period to the present. Library resources include books, maps, auction catalogs, periodicals, Alaska artist files, and subject vertical files that include a variety of ephemera related to Alaska.