Alaska Office - Preservation

Preserving Cultural Objects: Smithsonian-UAF Workshop
Attracts Participants from Museums Around the State

Representatives of museums and cultural centers from all parts of Alaska met at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art from May 20 - 24, 1996, for five days of intensive training with Smithsonian experts in techniques for preserving the products and records of Alaska Native tradition. Items entrusted to the care of tribal and community museums range from fading historical photographs to art works and archaeological collections, and may soon include burial masks and other objects whose return to Alaska is being sought under terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Community-based archaeology programs, oral history projects, and individual donations of traditional crafts and implements have all helped to build the cultural resources now housed in local repositories around the state.

Alaskan museum studies students Ellen Lester and Vivian Johnson examine a parka at the Arctic Studies Center research lab in Washington, D.C.; instructor Dr David Norton (Arctic Sivunmun Ilisagvik College, Barrow) in background. March, 1996. Participants in the Preservation of Cultural Objects workshop brought garments and other Alaska Native museum pieces to the Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage for study and treatment.

The Preservation of Cultural Objects workshop was conducted by Carolyn Rose and Greta Hansen, both with the Anthropology Conservation Laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Rose and Hansen have worked with Smithsonian ethnographic and archaeological collections from all corners of the globe, including objects that are hundreds to thousands of years old. In classroom sessions, they reviewed the challenges of preserving sensitive and fragile Alaskan items including skin clothing, ivory, wooden carvings, and grass baskets. Even in a museum, such articles can be easily damaged by mishandling, overexposure to light, fluctuations in temperature and humidity, chemicals, insects, and disasters, including floods and earthquakes. Awareness of the problems, and knowledge of preventative measures, will help staff at Alaska's small museums to maintain their collections for the benefit of future generations. In laboratory sessions, workshop participants began this long-term project by applying professional conservation procedures to document, clean, and stabilize items brought to Anchorage from their home communities or institutions. The workshop also provided an opportunity to address future directions of cultural preservation and museum development, on both the state and national levels.

Guest presenters Gloria Lomahaftewa of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Alyce Sadongei of the National Museum of the American Indian, and Phillip E. Minthorn, Jr. of the Repatriation Office at the National Museum of Natural History, discussed the development of community and tribal museums throughout the U.S., as Native American groups seek to preserve, reclaim, and revitalize their cultures. Participants in the class shared ideas and information with both the national presenters and colleagues from Kodiak, Barrow, Akutan, Homer, Sitka, Unalaska, Bethel, Nome, Anaktuvuk Pass and other Alaskan communities where cultural repositories have been built or planned.

To supplement class discussions about objects and exhibitions, the Anchorage Museum's Curator of Collections Walter Van Horn conducted a behind-the-scenes tour of the Alaska Gallery, and anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan gave a presentation on the summer exhibition Agayuliyararput, The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks.