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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 3 of 3 Objects
[1939 New York World's Fair, travel]
[1939 New York World's Fair, travel]
This film reel is made up of 6 smaller reels. Reel 1 is labeled "West Point, World's Fair New York 1939," and it contains scenes of men doing calisthenics, men boxing, men fencing and wrestling, men in uniform and marching, and scenes from the world's fair. Reel 2 is labeled "New York to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, June and July 1939," and it contains footage of New York City streets, a West Point gathering, and Puerto Rico. Reel 3 is labeled "July 1939, Trip to Clearwater with Jim Ryan and Ray Henderson 193[?]," and it contains views of children playing, a pilot climbing into a biplane, people with a captive bear cub, Hap Arnold's B-10 Bomber flight from Washington D.C. landing at Weeks Field and pilots in Fairbanks in August 1934, a military aircraft at Weeks Field, a boy's birthday cake, children playing in a garden, and a boat on the Tanana River traveling to the Delta Clearwater River. Reel 4 is labeled "July and August 1939, Plymouth, Washington D.C., Marengo, Black Hills, Seattle, Juneau, Fairbanks," and it contains footage of Washington D.C., people at home, people swimming, farm scenes, a man in a boat, a family gathering, Mt. Rushmore, Elkhorn Mountain, camping, a family eating watermelon along the roadside, Columbia River, boats and fishing, Juneau, and trucks on the Richardson Highway. Reel 5 is labeled "Fort Riley - Marengo," and it contains scenes of men in uniform, children playing, a family gathering, farm scenes, a waterfront and ships, totem poles, glaciers and icebergs, a car towing a trailer, travel along the Richardson Highway, a glacier, "Devil's Elbow," a family at Christmas, hay being loaded, and women getting into a car. Reel 6 is labeled "Bear, Sunset, Village of Ruby, Caribou, Mendenhall Glacier," and it contains footage of the Ruby waterfront, wildlife, the Black Rapids Glacier near Richardson Highway during its advance in the 1930s, and scenery.
[Boy scouts and travel]
[Boy scouts and travel]
This film reel is made up of 5 smaller reels. Reel 1 is labeled "Boy Scouts at McKinley Park 1934," and it contains scenes of the Alaska Railroad, Boy Scouts at Mt. McKinley National Park, scout activities, boys hiking and climbing, boys rolling down a hill, a flag raising ceremony, the Troop 646 flag, scouts playing on empty oil barrels, an automobile, a group posing for the camera, the steamer Nenana in Nenana, the Nenana train station, a vehicle on railroad tracks, uniformed military men in Fairbanks, and a boy holding a "Mechanix Illustrated" magazine. Reel 2 is labeled "Trip to U.S. with Family 1935, Oregon to California, Alaska to U.S., Ketchikan to Agua Caliente Mexico," and it contains footage of family travel by boat and car, the Oregon ferry, the Golden Gate Bridge, Cascade Falls, San Luis Rey Mission, and the Hoover Dam under construction. Reel 3 is labeled "Richardson Trail to Circle," and it contains views of Eagle Summit, Circle Hot Springs, road, bridges, children, the ship S.S. Aleutian, a waterfall, cars on a road, a ferry, a dredge and mining equipment, hydraulic giants, a power or telegraph pole being erected, a dog sled, and a person on skis being towed behind a vehicle or sled. Reel 4 is labeled "Fairbanks to Yellowstone 1935 [1939?]," and it contains footage of men in military formation, views from a train and a ship, Juneau, and Yellowstone National Park. Reel 5 is labeled "Alaska to Seattle #1 1935," and it contains scenes of men in military formation [at college in Fairbanks?], the College train station, Healy train station, McKinley Park train station, Wasilla train station, Matanuska train station, Eklutna train station, Portage train station, a ship in Cordova, the Juneau waterfront, shipboard scenes, the Ketchikan waterfront, bear cubs aboard the ship, and other shipboard scenes.
[Russ and Thelma Huber Film Collection, Trails to Highways, Diesel Trail to the Orient]
[Russ and Thelma Huber Film Collection, Trails to Highways, Diesel Trail to the Orient]
This film reel is made up of 3 smaller reels. Reels 1 and 2 are labeled "Trails to Highways Pt.1 and Pt.2," and they contain views of earth-moving and road construction equipment, an ox pulling a cart, road construction crews at work, and cars on the road. Reel 3 is labeled "Caterpillar Tractor Company presents 'The Diesel Trail to the Orient,'" and it contains views of a Pan American World Airways Flying Boat airplane, barges, earth-moving equipment, Hawaii [?], and a China Clipper airplane.