1. Browse Repository
  2. Alaska Film Archives

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
[Richard and Janet Ward collection 1]
[Richard and Janet Ward collection 1]
Footage includes a porcupine, Dick Ward with a chained sled dog, Dick Ward in a Pan American World Airways (PAA) uniform in Metlakatla, the PAA terminal building, a PAA Dc-4 or DC-6 passenger plane, Annette Island scenery (?), trucks and equipment at an asphalt plant, men paving a runway, cars and trailers at the Log Cabin Inn on the Glenn Highway, a gold dredge in operation, ice going out on the Chena River during break-up, aerial views of mountains, cars and a semi truck on a muddy road, a glacier moraine, early tripod-style power poles or telegraph/telephone poles used by ACS, a river, a rainbow, power boats, a parade in downtown Anchorage, power boat races on Spenard Lake (?), a squirrel, a light airplane taxiing across railroad tracks, and a small boy. Footage from outside Alaska includes palm trees, scenery, neon lights, an orange grove, highway travel, and a variety of locations. Additional footage includes Alcan Highway scenes during winter, Whitehorse, U.S. Customs at the Alaska border, Macintosh Trading Post, Alcan Highway scenes during summer, sternwheelers and street scenes in Whitehorse, Peace River Bridge, and travel back to the U.S. Border. Additional footage from outside Alaska includes a college, road travel, a flock of sheep on a road, beach and city scenes, PAA and logging trucks, crew members, and (back in Alaska) scenes in Fairbanks following a large snowfall. Additional footage from outside Alaska includes neon lights, travel, a cactus, small children and adults, and a parade.
Tageesh: wolverine of the north
Tageesh: wolverine of the north
Filmed during Ed Borders' ski trip from Fairbanks to Hazleton, British Columbia. He travels through wilderness on one of the proposed routes for the Alcan Highway. Contains some title frames and map references Footage includes Donald MacDonald with a map, aerial views of mountains, a gold placer mining operation, gold clean-up, a small cat train, cross country skiing, dog mushing, a trapper and camp, cabins in winter, a Pacific Alaskan Airways (PAA) airplane landing, a woman with a dog team, a PAA airplane taking off, a man and woman with a dog team, camp cooking, a hunter on snowshoes, glaciers, sunsets, an Native camp, mountain sheep, an animal kill site, a village with cabins, hitching up freight sleds and dog teams, skiing, a village, Native children playing on skis, a camp, wilderness scenes, a pack dog, a title frame reading "April 23... 91 days from Fairbanks," camping, travel with pack dogs, mountains, a group of people and cars, the U.S. Border in Washington State, Seattle, and Donald MacDonald typing.
[Trucking in Alaska]
[Trucking in Alaska]
Footage includes a bulldozer clearing snow at Alaska Freight Lines in Valdez, Tsaina Lodge, an Alaska Road Commission sign, blowing snow in Valdez, 40 Mile Lodge, a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane, a Canadian border station, a small sawmill in Port Chilkoot, people loading lumber, a Golden North airlines C-46 airplane loading polar bear cubs, "Polar Bear Line" painted on a C-46, car races at Rendezvous raceway in Fairbanks, an Alaska Freightlines van, travel on the Richardson Highway during winter, a minor truck accident during winter, clearing snow in Thompson Pass, a buffalo on the road, travel on the Richardson Highway during summer, early telegraph tripod poles along a highway, the Lowe River, a washed out bridge, Keystone Canyon, a tunnel on a road, unloading a ship at Valdez, Paxson Lodge, a damaged bridge near Sheep Mountain on Glenn Highway, a truck with flat tires being repaired along the highway, winter travel scenes showing overflow sections or glaciering across the highway, Knik River Bridge, and downtown Anchorage.