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Alaska Film Archives

About the Collection

Over the past half century, the University of Alaska Fairbanks has built the largest collection of archival films in and about Alaska. The collection combines hundreds of donations of film and videos to UAF by individuals, organizations and institutions. Materials range from professional productions to amateur home-movies, made in and about Alaska from the earliest days of filmmaking through today. Since 1993 these materials have been held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library. Films and videos selected for this portal project are a sampling of the thousands available for checkout on DVD through the Rasmuson Library. Unless otherwise noted, items are presented here in their entirety, unedited and uncut. Short, popular clips from the collection can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Read more about the Alaska Film Archives.

1 to 2 of 2 Objects
[Merton Attwood Collection 1]
[Merton Attwood Collection 1]
Footage includes ALCAN travel, a C-47 Wien flight from Fairbanks and a Cessna 180 flight from Bettles, men prospecting with a steam boiler and windlass, people gold mining with a hydraulic giant and heavy equipment, mining activities, a Pan American World Airways (PAN AM) Boeing 377 Stratocruiser arriving in Fairbanks, a Golden Days Parade in Fairbanks, the F.E. gold dredge in operation, a UAF building, placer gold mining activity, pans with gold, aerial views of Northern Alaska, a PAN AM airplane, people building up land on a lake or inlet, graduation activities and a parade, various family activities outside of Alaska, a PAN AM 707, a Wien C-46, a helicopter, a black bear in garbage, mining camp activities including construction and helicopter operations, people unloading a Beaver airplane, village activity, people building a metal structure on Nodwell, children in a village catching fish and playing, men working on equipment, a badminton game, a black bear, and men taking core samples with a drill.
[Merton Attwood Collection 2]
[Merton Attwood Collection 2]
Footage includes children playing in snow outside a cabin, children walking with their mother, a Wien airplane landing, a moose, a group of Eskimos in an outboard powered riverboat arriving at a fish camp on the shore, dead caribou being unloaded from a Nodwell tracked vehicle, caribou, a view of a mining camp in winter, a dogsled, spring break-up on a river, a mining camp, a man feeding a black bear, a camp with a Telache Oil and Mining sign on the building, Christmas and other domestic family scenes, a mock wedding, and real married couple departing in a decorated car. Additional footage includes a man unloading a light airplane that flipped during landing, a helicopter arriving, a dog sled, a helicopter hauling a barrel of fuel, getting a camp water with a Nodwell, and camp activities. Additional footage includes a family Christmas, someone hauling freight in a small truck, children playing and working in a Kobuk school, Kobuck village scenes, and an aircraft departing. Additional footage features airplanes in Palm Springs, aerial views of Interior Alaska in winter, a river break-up, aerial and ground views of a mining camp, an ATCO building at a camp, a Wien C-46, a Caterpillar clearing snow, a light airplane landing, mining activity with heavy equipment, airplanes, men building a log cabin, a Cessna 180 on skis departing, a C-82 cargo airplane landing and departing, a Caterpillar clearing snow, sled dog races, and Yukon 800 boat races. Additional footage includes Santa Claus at a Christmas party in a village, Tanana Winter Carnival dog races, a supply barge on the Yukon River, and a water skier on the Yukon River.