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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 7 of 7 Objects
[Alaska Visitors Association film]
[Alaska Visitors Association film]
This 35mm film from the Alaska Visitors Association shows eagles, whales, rivers, sled dog teams, aerial views, mountains, seals, hills, forests, moose, sheep, caribou, geese, rivers, ducks, bears, a cruise ship, fish, Prince William Sound, totem poles, a blanket toss, Alaska Native peoples, recreational activities, and waterfalls. A narrator encourages people to visit Alaska following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
[Fairbanks sled dog races and baseball, 1969 North Slope exploration and Haul Road construction- part 2]
[Fairbanks sled dog races and baseball, 1969 North Slope exploration and Haul Road construction- part 2]
This film contains on-the-ground and aerial views of Alaska's North Slope and the future Haul Road corridor, caribou running, a man with a small net standing next to a stream, caribou near bluffs, Sagwon Lodge, a braided river, a camp and tower (drill rig?), bears, wolves, caribou, sheep, rivers, mountains, men pulling a net from a stream, men fly fishing, bear tracks, a small airplane near a camp, moose, a man with a fish net, a bear, views from a boat in the river, cabins along the river, jumpy aerial views of the Fairbanks area including Creamer's Dairy and a mining operation, aerial views of road construction crews at work and trees being cleared north of Fairbanks along the Haul Road (Dalton Highway) corridor between Livengood and the Yukon River, men fishing from a boat, and Bridal Veil falls near Valdez.
[Howard C. Robinson's Alaska film]
[Howard C. Robinson's Alaska film]
AAF-11895 begins with the title screens: "Howard C. Robinson presents Alaska" and "Produced by Robinson Studios." Program includes scenes of the Inside Passage, Ketchikan, commercial fishing activities, Wrangell, Petersburg, Taku Glacier, Sitka, Skagway, White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, Valdez, the Gulf of Alaska, Prince William Sound, Resurrection Bay, Seward, Resurrection River, Iron Mountain, a map of Alaska, the Alaska Highway, White Horse, Fairbanks, gold mining and dredge activities, Anchorage, a bear pulling cart with small girl in cart, Worthington Glacier, Keystone Canyon, Matanuska Glacier, Matanuska Valley, Palmer, Juneau, the Governor's mansion, Mendenhall Glacier, Malaspina Glacier, Cordova, Columbia Glacier, Whittier, Anchorage, Lake Spenard, Cook Inlet, the Alaska Railroad, scenery between Seward and Anchorage, the Whittier tunnel, Hurricane Gulch, Talkeetna, Mt. McKinley Park and park hotel, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Nome, placer mining, pilot Gren Collins and an airplane on skiis, Alaska Native activities such as seal hunting and jigging for tomcod, a Russian Orthodox Church, Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, Umnak, Adak harbor, Massacre Bay at Attu, captured World War II-era Japanese equipment on Kiska, an Aleutian storm, and Aleutian volcanoes.
[Huttula Family films 2]
[Huttula Family films 2]
AAF-11854 is made up of three smaller reels of film. Reel 1 is labeled, “Carnival” and contains footage of hills and caribou, a baby, and an airplane landing on a river. Reel 2 is labeled “Karen” on the leader and “Skiing Eugene Bell [or Ball], Mary Rosamond, Reini” on the box [note that writing on box is faint and difficult to read]. It contains footage of a family and a baby. Reel 3 is labeled, “Karen Jo, Togo, Circle” on the box, and “tablecloth” on the film leader and contains footage of a parade and carnival, dog mushing, sand hill cranes, people biking, people swimming (with a woman wearing a swimsuit made from tablecloth?), and a bear cub on a leash. Edge codes on films and postal marks on boxes suggest that the films were shot between 1941 and 1945.
[Savoonga, Kenai, Homer, McNeil River]
[Savoonga, Kenai, Homer, McNeil River]
Location identifications are from Victor Rovier's notes. According to original notes accompanying this film, the first five segments, all dated 1966, were likely filmed by Jack Fuller in Savoonga and include scenes of women skinning seals, travel by umiak, a walrus laying on ice, walruses scattering after gunfire, a baby walrus swimming in water, Native men in a shelter, men pulling an umiak across snow, men with harpoons and guns shooting a walrus at a breathing hole, piles of muktuk, men pulling up and cutting a whale, a boat and a whale, men carving a whale in water, walrus tusks and meat, people with dogsleds and snowmachines meeting a airplane, a blanket toss, men harpooning a walrus through a hole in ice, and distant views of an umiak at sea. According to original notes, the following three segments were filmed by Victor Rovier in June of 1966 and include views of Anchorage, an earthquake-caused slump in Turnagain Arm, a man (identified in notes as Wilcox) fishing at Alexander Creek, airboat travel up Alexander Creek, oil tanks and an oil platform, Kenai, and dock facilities. Remaining film segments are all titled "McNeil 1967" and include images of filmmaker Victor Rovier packing a tent, men (identified in notes as Hans and Rovier) loading an airplane, the airplane taking off, buildings in Homer, takeoff of an airplane and aerial views, the instrument panel of an airplane, mountains, Rovier talking to the pilot, Mt. Augustine, McNeil River from the air, Rovier carrying gear at a beach, Rovier setting up a tent and blowing up an air mattress, bears wrestling, a bear with a red tag, waterfowl (poor focus), bears walking, Hans giving Rovier a shave while Rovier holds a revolver, bears fishing in a river, Rovier fishing in McNeil River, men (identified in notes as Rovier and Dick) wading across McNeil River, Rovier at McNeil Falls, Homer spit, fjords and islands en route to Seldovia, and Rovier with a camera in Seldovia.
[Stenberg films 9]
[Stenberg films 9]
This film is labeled, “Home Reel 1.” The film contains scenes of southeast Alaska, men and women posing with bundles of furs, small boats, mountains and glaciers, a waterfall, views from a boat, fishing vessels at a dock, and women walking along a snowy street. The segment titled “Alaska River Voyage” by the Alaska Sportsman Magazine includes scenes filmed in Southeast Alaska such as tourists boarding a boat, a woman posing with a dog, women looking at totem poles, boats, and bears.
[Valdez, Alaska and Outside travel]
[Valdez, Alaska and Outside travel]
The first segment in Alaska includes footage of blowing snow in Valdez the and aerial views of winter countryside. Footage outside of Alaska includes George Meals at his farm in Atkinson Nebraska with unidentified women, traffic at night, a Northwest Airlines airplane, a man chopping wood, a woman and dog, tourists watching a dog sled in the summer, mountains, women in a Valdez Light and Power office, men and women in a garden (Nancy, Frank and Ertha Mills in Sebastapol CA), seals in cages, homes and roads, lights in downtown Las Vegas, an old west town (Nancy and Ertha with figures), a dam site, Nancy and friends posing for the camera, homes, people posing (Nancy and family near Amarillo Texas, George Meals with a hay wagon, and farm scenes in Atkinson Nebraska with Melvin and Marvin Meals. The second segment includes footage of downtown Valdez, snow removal vehicles, a propeller-driven vehicle (probably built by Owen Meals) driving down a street, freight being unloaded from a ship, fuel tanks, Alaska Freight Lines and other semi-trucks with trailers and freight, a snowplow, parked semi-trucks, snow removal, a snowy road, wintertime dock activities, an Alaska Steamship Company trailer being offloaded from a ship,Valdez street scenes during winter, trucks hauling pipes, a Valdez Light Power & Telephone Company truck, a small helicopter landing and taking off, and dock views. The third segment includes footage at the Valdez airport with a military DC-3 and other airplanes, an airplane taking off, cars driving on a snowy road, Anchorage city lights, mountains and a lake, foxes at a fox farm, a small water wheel, a cabin and cache, a bear cub and people, scenic views, highway travel, a small airplane taking off and flying by, wind in the mountains, a no-hunting sign, a waterfall and ice, Valdez City School (built in 1936 and used until the 1964 earthquake), and views from a ship. The fourth segment outside of Alaska includes images of families posing for the camera, scenes at a large airport, a woman climbing oil derrick/tower stairs, oil-drilling operation, a small windmill, and oil rigs.