Museums - Alaska State Museum

The Alaska State Museum was established on June 6, 1900, when an Act of Congress created the Historical Library and Museum for the Territory of Alaska. The Alaska State Museum was first accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1975.
The collections of the Alaska State Museum (which are shared by the facility in Juneau and the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka) represent the diverse cultures and rich historical record of a large geographic area. Of the museum’s more than 27,000 cataloged objects, Alaskan Native material—including Alaskan Eskimo, Athabascan, Aleut, and Northwest Coast groups—dominates the collection. Items from daily life as well as ceremonial and sacred objects are well represented. The collection of Northwest Coast and Eskimo baskets is among the most comprehensive in existence and includes fragments of three recently discovered baskets which have been dated to 5000 years BP, the oldest ever recovered in Alaska or the Northwest Coast. The collection of Eskimo carved ivory is comprehensive and ranges from prehistoric to twentieth century. The museum also maintains an outstanding collection of work by contemporary Native artists.
The natural history collection contains approximately 1,200 seashells, minerals, skeletons, fossils, and mounted animals and birds.
The two State Museum facilities have an extensive collection, about eighty-five percent of which is not on permanent exhibit. Many of the artifacts in storage are available for research or loan.