Archives & Special Collections says 'welcome back, and come visit'

Archives & Special Collections on the third floor of the Consortium Library welcomes everyone back to school at UAA and invites you to come take a look at our collections!

Our archives hold unique, one-of-a-kind materials that are not typically published nor are available through other resources – all relating to the history of Alaska and especially Southcentral Alaska.  These include personal diaries and letters, thousands of photographs, moving image film, audio recordings, scrapbooks, and many other documents.

Our collections contain the papers of Alaskan politicians and legislators, public policy institutes, civic organizations, businesses, doctors, nurses, social workers, lawyers, anthropologists, military personnel, academics, dancers, artists, journalists, photographers, and sometimes just your average Alaska families.  If you browse through our complete collections list, you’ll see that our holdings represent the diversity that is Alaska.

We also have some materials relating to the history of UAA as it has grown through the years, and you also find the Library’s collection of rare books and student theses in the Archives.  

UAA Archives & Special Collections also posts digital images of our historical photographs and manuscripts on the Alaska’s Digital Archives website.  You can browse the website for thousands of archival documents and images from our collections at UAA, as well as from the archives at the Alaska & Polar Regions Collection at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Alaska State Library Historical Collections, the Anchorage Museum, and other Alaskan institutions.  It’s an amazing resource for finding primary source material for your classes – or just if you’re curious and want to look at photos of Alaska’s history!

Come visit us any time in the Archives.  We can help you find primary sources for your research for classes such as history, anthropology, geography and environmental studies, health and medicine, psychology, English, Alaska Native studies, journalism and many other subjects.

We’re open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and you can reach us at archives@uaa.alaska.edu if you have any questions.  Our friendly archivists are waiting to help you dive into Alaska history!

Welcome back, UAA!

This post written and contributed by Megan Friedel, one of our Archivists here in the UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives & Special Collections department.