About the Alaska State Museum
The Alaska State Museum traces its origins to June 6, 1900, when an Act of Congress created the Historical Library and Museum for the District of Alaska to collect, preserve, and exhibit objects from the territory. For its first two decades the growing collection was stored wherever space could be found, until 1920 when it was first made available to the public in the Arctic Brotherhood Building in Juneau. The Territory assumed responsibility for the museum in 1923, expanding it to include research, tour-guide programs, and educational activities.
In 1967, to mark the centennial of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, the citizens of Juneau passed a one-percent sales tax to help fund the current museum facility, after which ownership passed to the State of Alaska. The collection has since grown from roughly 5,500 to more than 27,000 objects. The museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1975 and re-accredited in 1987 and 2001. Today it operates as part of the Alaska State Libraries, Archives & Museums, and is housed in the Andrew P. Kashevaroff (APK) Building in downtown Juneau.
Collections and What to See
The museum's mission is to identify, collect, care for, and exhibit Alaska's material culture and natural history, interpreting the history of the state, its people, and its resources. Visitors can explore exhibits drawn from a collection that spans Alaska Native artifacts, fine art, natural history specimens, and historical objects documenting Alaska's path from Russian America to statehood. The institution also maintains an extensive collection of Alaskan photographs and supports conservation work, a NAGPRA program, and educational visits.
The Alaska State Museum is administered alongside the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, founded in 1888 to house an exceptional collection of Alaska Native ethnographic material gathered by Presbyterian missionary Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson. Purchased by the State of Alaska in 1985, the Sheldon Jackson Museum holds about 6,000 objects and occupies the first concrete structure built in Alaska, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Planning Your Visit
The Alaska State Museum is located in the Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building at 395 Whittier Street in Juneau. For current hours, admission, exhibitions, and event information, visit the museum's official website at museums.alaska.gov.
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