Museums - Pratt Museum

The Pratt Museum is located on the shores of Kachemak Bay on the southeast part of Cook Inlet. Its anthropology collection consists of 9,741 objects. Its archaeological artifacts were excavated from local sites and form a well-documented research collection of the earliest-known human inhabitants of Kachemak Bay, ranging from the Ocean Bay Culture (4500 years BP) to the Kachemak Tradition to the prehistoric Dena’ina Athabaskans (c. AD 1400). Ethnographic artifacts include basketry, dolls, fishing and hunting implements, boats, household tools, clothing, and ornamental objects representing the three major regional Native Alaskan coastal cultures, the Dena’ina Athabaskan, Pacific Eskimo, and Aleut. One of the rarest artifacts is a well-preserved 1,000-year-old Kachemak Tradition birch bark basket that miraculously survived in a tide-swept cliff. The museum is recognized by the Kenaitze Indian Tribe of Dena’ina Athabaskans as a regional repository for cultural materials and cares for their repatriated counting cords and newly excavated archaeological materials from the Upper Russian River.
The museum’s research collection includes 29,545 objects plus an extensive library, media collection, and archives. The collections constitute a regionally distinctive resource for research, exhibition, and educational use.
Most of the objects were field collected by the Pratt Museum. About five percent of the collection is on exhibit. Collections in storage are accessible for researchers and qualified users.