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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.

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Alaska Review 16
Alaska Review 16
In the first segment, reporter Eric Eckholm reviews the history of reindeer herding in Alaska and reports on the harvesting of reindeer antlers for sale to foreign markets. Interviewees include: Mr. Chueng of San Francisco's Chinatown, herbal merchant selling deer antlers for medicinal purposes; Alfred Carmen of Deering, reindeer herder; Dr. Jack Luick of Fairbanks, reindeer scientist; Jim Isabelle, helicopter pilot; Jung Wang, antler buyer; and John Schaeffer, president of NANA Regional Corporation. The report contains views of a helicopter-aided reindeer roundup in Deering, reindeer antler removal, Chinatown in San Francisco, and the Teller reindeer round-up. In the second segment, Mark Weller reports on the status of the state-owned Alaska Marine Highway System, its vessels, passengers, and employees. Interviewees include: Bill Hudson, director of the Alaska Marine Highway System; John Sund of Ketchikan; Captain Gary Cramer of the M/V Taku; Captain Herb Story of the M/V Columbia; Ken Beselin, chief engineer of the M/V Columbia; Greg O'Clary of the Inland Boatmen's Union (IBU); Pat Tarte of the Port of Bellingham; Jube Howe of the Port of Seattle; Mary Fabry of Ketchikan, travel agent; Erv Hagerup, chief mate of the M/V Taku; and Len Laurence (misspelled in title screen) of Ketchikan, travel agent. The report contains views of coastal Alaska communities, marine highway vessels, dock workers, passengers, and scenes aboard ferries. The program also contains Public Service Announcements (PSAs) about drug abuse prevention and the Arts.
[Jeanie of Alaska – original reel 1]
[Jeanie of Alaska – original reel 1]
This film includes scenes of Bud and Connie Helmericks traveling with their young daughter, Jeanie, throughout northern Alaska. The date of 1952 was confirmed by Jean (Jeanie Helmericks) Aspen in 2015. Detailed summary information was provided by the filmmakers. According to these notes, the films include scenes of Bud, Connie, and their daughter Jeanie (just turned two years old) walking toward their airplane; an airport in Montana; the family en route to Alaska; scenes from Takahula Lake, including the Helmericks’ log cabin home in the Brooks Range (Jeanie had never seen it before); Connie lifting Jeanie out of an airplane; Jeanie’s first view of the Arctic following a five-day flight from the U.S.; Jeanie wearing a factory-made brown alpaca parka with a hood; the next day, Jean on her tiny snowshoes watching her daddy cut a hole through the four-foot ice of the lake; Ice-fishing; Connie in rubber boots carrying Jean through water to get out on the lake ice in May; Bud gassing up the airplane; ice on Takahula Lake getting slushy and treacherous, and so they must go north because the airplane’s landing field on the frozen lake is disappearing; arriving at the still-frozen Arctic Ocean, 300 miles directly north of the cabin; Bud setting up an Explorers Club flag on a staff; pitching a tent and making a polar camp; Jean watching from a gas can seat dressed in a new caribou fur parka; a dog team driven by a friend arriving from the shore by arrangement; Jean walking on her snowshoes; hunting seals; Jean helping her mother fetch a bucket of snow for melting; on sunny days, camp gear and bedding hung out over the airplane to dry out the dampness of living on the salt ice; Connie hanging child’s diapers to dry on the airplane prop; Bud stalking and killing a polar bear; Jean and her toy seal; ice getting dangerous; on shore again after two months; Oliktok Point, on the north coast of Alaska, changing the landing gear for summer flight; inside a tent – Nannie, Martha, and George; a summer evening on the Koyukuk River and an aerial view; a trading post at Hughes for mail and supplies; over the Brooks Range; a sunset rainbow over Takahula Lake in summertime; building a dock and steps to the cabin; planting a garden; Bud hanging moose antlers up on a gable; Connie and Jeanie paddling through the waters of Takahula Lake in a seven-foot homemade kayak, which was very tippy; on the Arctic coast in summer - the Helmericks family camping with a tent; mosquitos on Bud’s back; Point Barrow - a tractor pushing off a boat; two views of the polar ice pack as it looks in summer; a walrus hunt; a bull walrus charging the boat; and a walrus being harpooned and butchered.