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.

: [Adolph Murie collection - select films]; These are films made by naturalist, author, and wildlife biologist Adolph Murie at Alaska's Mount McKinley (Denali) National Park. The scenes include Adolph's wife Louise, his son Jan, and his daughter Gail. They also include wildlife including bears, wolves, fox, dall sheep, caribou, and a variety of birds and waterfowl. According to notes accompanying the films, one scene shows a grizzly bear near a cabin in Toklat within the park. The following details are transcribed from original labels on film containers or from associated handwritten notes; items in brackets are the processor's notes. Weezer and Weazy are nicknames for Louise. Film 1368-106: “[On can]: 160; [On reel]: 1941 begin Gail and Wags at hdqts. McKinley Park; [On white card in can]: Gail and Wags at Igloo in winter, Weezer with Wags winter, playing with stick, Gail at Rising[?], glacier at Igloo in spring, Wags alone at Igloo, Fox pups (and black one) male female good, wolves wild fair, old squaw, wheatear, horned grebe, (film intact) 1940-41; [On pink note in can]: this reel has some wolf shots, mostly fox, sheep, caribou, cut pieces; [On yellow note in can]: Film 9 wolf, birds, fox, Dall sheep, Bears, caribou, brief footage showing 2 children 1 man, Mt. McKinley." Film 1367-17: “[On box]: #8 set #2, McKinley Park May 1949, Snowbirds at hdqts (good), Rabbit (good), Drawn, Splice; [On card in box]: wolf eating caribou on river bar, Wolf drinking, distant shot of wolf feeding on caribou, wolf walking away, grizzly at Toklat by cabin, grizzly in fall snow with grass (good), porcupine feeding in willow, porcupine in willow (good), silver fox, Gail (short shot), gulls in tree (out of focus), ptarmigan flocks flying (good), ptarmigan on ground white-good.” Film 1367-6: “[On box]: #59; finished July 3 '49, Gail and Jan Big Rock [or River?]; cock fowl hen fair, much blank, bear-sheep shaky, squirrel middens, wolf tracks around bridge, wolverine hairs, Checked; [On card in box]: Gail and Jan snowshoe and ski, Pile of sq middins, squirrel cuttings, wolverine tracks, wolf tracks around bridge (overexposed), wolf track (with trap), shaky scenes of sheep, grizzly following wounded sheep, blank film, rock ptarm (out of focus).” Film 1367-67: “[On box]: #15 set #2, bear and fox 66, jaeger poor, ptarmigan and Gail, Gail feeding Wags milk; [On white card in box]: 1940, Willow ptarmigan male in spring (bare ground), closeup of male Ptarm on log-Gail behind, Gail chasing ptarmigan, caribou herd running, Gail with young wolf pup, feeding wolf pup, Wolf pup nuzzling in grass, Gail swinging, Me and Gail and Jan at East Fork.” Film 1367-35: “[On box]: #1, Moose yearling, wolf on Polychrome Rd; [On card in box]: sheep (ewe and lamb) short, wolf on road, wolf defecating on road, wolf going over mt, calf moose (good), cow and calf moose, cow with two calves, moose feeding (out of focus), 2 calves and cow feeding (good shots).” Film 1367-61: “[On box]: #18, Weezy feeding wolf pup, caribou [illegible], silver fox, ptarmigan; [On card in box]: blue film, caribou running, caribou crossing stream, silver fox on snow, silver fox running, silver fox closeups, feeding wolf pup (Weazy), Rock Ptarmigan sitting (out of focus), more ptarmigan on snow, wolf pup.”

: [Adler-Tollefson Family films - 4]; This film shows people skiing behind a truck as seen from the truck.

: [Adler-Tollefson Family films - 6]; This film contains scenes of men preparing gold for smelting into an ingot, caribou, and Joanie with Mrs. Adler.

: [Arnie M. Lee and Family collection - 3]; Notes with this film say “1943 – 1944, Anne Larsen film of Jergen and family, gold dredge hydraulic moving camp, Snoqualmie ski lodge, ski jumping, Oregon coast, cliff house coast calif?, GJOA expedition, SFO Jergen and Arne, Jerhen’s family? in Calif?” Writing inside the film can says “Chatnika, Kirkland[?], Vasapark[?], Billings, Dahls and Seattle and some snow” and “During the war and some from Alaska.” The film contains footage of small log cabins, a dredge in a dredge pond, mining camp buildings being moved, Snoqualmie Ski Lodge in Washington State, the Cliff House in San Francisco, a plaque in San Francisco commemorating Roald Amundsen’s 1903-1906 Gjoa expedition, the Roald Amundsen monument in San Francisco, and family gatherings and activities outside of Alaska.

: [Fort Chilkoot region]; The first section includes intertitles is titled "Transportation in Alaska." Footage includes a car on a narrow road and being pulled through snow by horses, Native men in a small boat poling on a river, a boat identified as a "war canoe," men with horses in a pack-train, a man on snowshoes, sled dog teams pulling sleds, ocean travel on a ship in rough seas, a White Pass and Yukon Railroad rotary snowplow working and travel on the route, a flying boat, aerial views of the A-J mine in Juneau, a puppy pulling a child on a small sled followed by an intertitle of "the end". Additional footage includes a young boy and man walking a black bear on a chain, troops on snowshoes and skiis in parade grounds at Fort Chilkoot, a child playing in snow, a man shovelling snow, a child sledding, people riding in a dogsled and mushing through a town and woods, men with a horse drawn sled, children sledding and skiing, a young girl, people with a baby during baptism, family scenes with children inside a home, and couples including a military officer dancing and mugging for the camera.

: [Ft. Richardson and ATG and Lend-Lease aircraft with Russian markings at Nome, Turnagain by the Sea development and ATG... 3]; Part 3 (AAF-1544) footage includes a sternwheeler, Eskimo dancers, a bear cub, Eskimo men gathering eggs and catching birds in flight, a tent, umiaks, loading freight in Nome, hauling meat with dog sleds, Governor Gruening swearing in Alaska Territorial Guard members, ATG members with rifles and during marching drills, Muktuk Marston, a snowblower in Nome, ATG headquarters in Nome (image reversed), Governors Gruening and Dewey, title screens and a map, a dog team and reindeer hooked to a sled, Muktuk Marston with a puppy and swearing in ATG members, dog team travel, aerial views of mountains, captive bear cubs, Governor Dewey in a red parka, and more aerial views of mountains.

: [Lou and Ruth McCoy collection 5]; Footage features ALCAN travel in 1946 (?) and the 1946 Fairbanks Ice Carnival.

: [Lou and Ruth McCoy collection 6]; Footage includes the Maclaren River Lodge on the Denali Highway as well as a parade and sled dog races in Fairbanks.

: [Seppala family film 1]; Footage includes Leonhard with a dog team, Olympic activities at Lake Placid in 1932, Leonhard with dogs in Maine, Nome street scenes and lighter, small rail cars on Seward Peninsula Kougarok Railroad, a gold dredge and mining operations near Nome, passengers on the tug Dayton, aerial views of Nome, Sigrid and Mrs. Seppala in Skagway and on a ship, ship travel in the Southeast, a tour bus in Skagway, Gorst Air Transport Loening Air Yacht seaplane on a beach, scenery from a train, mining camp scenes, a Davidson Ditch siphon, gold dredge operation, a Caterpillar tractor, a Davidson Ditch crew building a dam at a washout, Scenery along the Richardson Highway, a lone gold miner (Harry Lind?) with a rocker box near Nome, Davidson Ditch Dam on the Chatanika River, a Davidson Ditch crew repairing a washout, a Davidson Ditch dam and siphon in a valley, hydraulic giants, men driving thaw points, a gold dredge, a man sampling dredge diggings, internal dredge operations, King Islanders arriving in Nome by umiak, 4th of July Native games in Nome, kayak races, a man demonstrating an Eskimo roll in a Kayak, Leonhard mushing and making ice cream with Eskimo girls, the pupmobile on Kougarok railroad, sled dogs pulling a wagon and small rail cars in Nome. Additional scenes include a Paramount News Reel of Leonhard Seppala mushing dogs in New York during a diphtheria serum drive and contestants in the Ottawa International Dog Derby in 1930.

: [Southeast Alaska travel, Yakutat, Nome fire aftermath and villages 2]; Part 3 (AAF-2932) footage features scenes from Yakutat with title frames, Salvation Army activity, Alaska Native children wearing sailor hats, unidentified elders, Mr. & Mrs. Jack Ellis, Frank Italio, a man pulling a sled, Mrs. M.B. Refsland Supervisor of Elementery Education in Southeast Alaska, the Alaska Steamship vessel Alaska backing away from a dock, children on a dock, unidentified people, an elderly blind man with cane, unidentified people posing for the camera, a man sharpening a saw, town scenes, Mt. St Elias, students leaving school, and children on swings. Part 4 (AAF-2933) footage includes Nome following the fire of 1934, King Island residents in boats meeting a ship, Nunivak Island, Jim Cassidy and Misha Ivanoff, Unalaska village scenes and residents, the Silver Fox Farm in Teller, Teller streets, Kigugluk and Akviyuk in Seward during 1934, Herman Sandwick, a Native cemetery in Teller, St. Lawrence Island village scenes, and a village on Diomede (?).

Alaska Film Archives

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