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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 5 of 5 Objects
[Boating on a river, camping]
[Boating on a river, camping]
This footage features three children in the front of a boat on a river, a boat passing a sternwheeler with tourists on the sternwheeler waving, a boat motoring to shore, a campsite with a teepee and campers, women preparing food at a campsite on the bank of a river, women roasting and eating hotdogs, a cliff face, sea gulls, and a cityscape viewed from across a body of water (likely not in Alaska).
[Collapsed roof on building]
[Collapsed roof on building]
This video shows a building labeled "J & O Drilling," a collapsed building covered in snow, the inside of a collapsed building with the roof of the building resting on a large truck inside, a camper in the collapsed building, and a view of the inside roof of the collapsed building.
[Football games, basketball games]
[Football games, basketball games]
This footage shows a night time football game being played outdoors and under lights on a baseball field that was converted into a football field [possibly Griffin Park in Fairbanks?], a football game being played on a snowy field in Fairbanks, and women's basketball games being played in a gymnasium. [Teams in both the football and basketball games wear red and gold uniforms, so they might be from West Valley High School in Fairbanks].
[Red Olson taking first barrel of oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, views of Valdez]
[Red Olson taking first barrel of oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, views of Valdez]
This film contains views of Trans-Alaska Pipeline construction; brief scenes of the first barrel of oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil field being flown by helicopter to the S.S. Manhattan; scenes of Red and Randy Olson ceremonially transporting the first barrel of oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez by dogsled in early 1975; close-up views of the Olson sled, dogs, and gear; views of the Olsons passing through downtown Fairbanks with a dog team and barrel of oil; images of a plaque and statue in Valdez commemorating the efforts of workers who built the pipeline; views of a large temporary Atco camp in Valdez; aerial views of the pipeline pad, side booms, and vertical support members; and scenes of pipeline construction activities and pipe sections being welded together.
[Stewart Rothman Family films, rocket launch, camping, 2nd Avenue, winter carnival]
[Stewart Rothman Family films, rocket launch, camping, 2nd Avenue, winter carnival]
This video contains footage of a rocket launch, someone driving a covered all-terrain vehicle through snowy woods, dog mushing, scenic views of a lake, a family walking by a lake in fall, trailer park houses, a woman, a baby walking, a man playing with a dog, Second Avenue neon signs at night in Fairbanks, Eielson Air Force Base buildings, winter scenery, a little girl in a front yard in summer, a woman gardening, views of a lake, two men with multiple cameras filming scenery, a family starting a fire in winter, dog mushing races, children riding in a dog sled, snowshoe races, a blanket toss, sled dogs, a parade in winter with marching soldiers, floats, and clowns, a family on the steps of a building, a close-up of a small baby, a child playing in snow, aerial views of mountains, an army helicopter, and men fishing in winter.