Interdisciplinary Dissertation Takes an In-Depth Look at Alaska’s Museums
By Zeke Shomler
Angela Linn has been the Collections Manager of Ethnology and History at the UA Museum of the North since 1999. For nearly a decade now, she has been diligently researching the history, cultural impact, and responsivity of Alaskan museums to their communities in pursuit of an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Museology and Northern History. On October 3rd, she successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Preserving Reflections of Ourselves: The Past, Present, and Future of Alaska’s Museums.”
For this work, Angela built on her years of experience in Alaskan museums with a research approach that combined history, anthropology, and critical museology. “Critical theory,” as she explained in her defense, “is a theoretical framing that identifies, critiques, and seeks to change the underlying power structures that define our society.” By analyzing institutional narratives, policies, procedures, and actions of Alaskan museums, her work helps us move toward a more equitable, sustainable approach to museum structures and practices.
Angela focused on the “Big 3” Alaskan museums for this dissertation: the Alaska State Museums (which includes the ASM in Juneau and the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka), the Anchorage Museum, and the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) here on the Troth Yeddha’ campus in Fairbanks.
She had three primary research questions: How has the historical context of each Big 3 museum impacted the expression of their missions and values? How have the laws and ethics that govern Alaskan and American museums changed over the past hundred years, and how have they impacted Alaskan museums? And finally, how are Alaskan museums responding to the needs of modern Alaskans?
In order to answer these questions, Angela first had to determine how, exactly, these museums developed in the first place. Although museums are very good at maintaining artifacts and curating historical collections, she explained, they tend to be less strict when recording their own internal histories. Angela sifted through thousands of archival documents, such as newspaper articles, official museum correspondences, letters, and reports, to determine the timeline of each museum’s background. The history that she developed for each museum is a significant contribution to our overall understanding of Alaska’s cultural history.
While watching Angela’s defense, I was incredibly impressed with the detail she achieved for each museum’s history and context, and the care and rigor with which she treated the material. I was also struck by the large range of backgrounds, structures, and overall focuses of the Big 3 museums.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North was founded shortly after the opening of UAF, when it was still Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. Originally housed inside the Eielson Building, its first contents were primarily collected through Otto Geist’s “vacuum cleaner method,” by which he indiscriminately removed tens of thousands of archaeological artifacts from the Bering Strait, especially St. Lawrence Island. Now, it is run by a team of experts, researchers, and educators who, operating under the University’s Board of Regents and UAF Provost, maintain and share the collection with the utmost professionalism and respect within an architecturally striking building that bears Otto Geist’s name.
Sitka’s Sheldon Jackson Museum is the oldest museum in the state, and is located inside Alaska’s very first concrete building. First founded by a man who contributed significantly to the history of Alaska Native boarding schools, it is now owned and run by Alaska State Museums out of Juneau
The Anchorage Museum opened in 1968 as The Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum. It was started with federal funding as part of the Alaska Purchase Centennial, and has received significant financial support from the influential Rasmuson family. Now the largest museum in Alaska, both in terms of size and visitation, it maintains an emphasis on art collections anchored in a historical approach. This includes a First Peoples of Alaska Gallery, which includes 600 items on long-term loan from the Smithsonian along with film footage that brings community insights to life. As far as the Anchorage Museum’s governance, I was surprised to learn that it is the only museum from the Big 3 that has a standard nonprofit structure with a formal Board of Directors.
During the 20th century, a significant number of influential laws and guidelines were established to regulate archaeology, artifact retrieval, and museum standards. These include the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a federal law passed in 1990 that returns ownership of human remains and cultural items removed from federal, state, and tribal lands to their communities. NAGPRA has been highly influential not only on the makeup of the archival collections, but also on the relationships between museums and the communities they serve. In general, the legal considerations for Alaskan museums are much more complex than they were one hundred years ago—but that’s not a bad thing. These regulations allow for a more responsible and culturally responsive present.
To gain a deeper understanding of the current state of Alaska’s museums, Angela drew on her anthropological expertise, taking field notes during meetings, trainings, webinars, public events, and conversations with colleagues. Other types of data included forty-one survey responses, which collected and analyzed community perspectives on the museums and their functions. The large amount of qualitative data that Angela collected helps us better understand how museums impact and interact with their communities.
Finally, as another type of data in this highly interdisciplinary research, Angela made use of two case studies of projects she worked on at UAMN. For the Indigenous Watercraft Research Project, she invited Indigenous cultural experts to the museum who examined the collection, discussed their knowledge of watercraft in history, and gave advice on preserving, interpreting, documenting, and exhibiting the spectacular boats and other watercraft housed within the museum collection. The project is a significant step toward the culturally responsive conservation of boats at the museum. The ideal move, she said, is toward a “more welcoming place for Alaska Native people to come work with their own cultural belongings.”
For the Bus 142 project, Angela and the museum team are working on preserving and displaying the legendary Bus 142 from Into the Wild. By working with a diverse advisory team of twenty-five individuals, each with a unique perspective on the bus and its significance, she is able to accurately tell the story of Bus 142 and “meet the needs of a global fan base while respecting Alaskan stories.” The museum is working closely with the public to tell its narrative accurately and respectfully. The bus will continue to be a destination for devotees of the adventure narrative, she said, but it can also be “a site of memory for those experiencing the pain and loss of missing loved ones.” Her work helps give voice to Alaskans whose experiences of the bus have historically been overshadowed.
As part of this dissertation, Angela was also interested in seeing how tribally owned and operated cultural centers and museums operate differently from “conventional” and largely white-owned institutions such as the Big 3. Beyond just her primary research subjects, she looked at the history of institutions like the Southeast Indian Cultural Center and the Juneau Sealaska Heritage Institute. These organizations represent centers of cultural sovereignty and the practice of communities telling their own stories.
Angela explained how smaller community- and tribal-owned museums can often pursue innovative practices more readily than the Big 3, since they have less infrastructure and smaller bureaucracies. The Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, for example, just received the 2023 Guardian of Culture and Lifeways International Award for museum institutional excellence. While the large museums are dedicated to being good neighbors by supporting things like trainings, hosting events, and shipping supplies, they can also learn from their smaller neighbors. While sometimes limited resources can lead to a sense of competition between museums, there is a shift occurring toward a more collaborative model of relationships between museums throughout the state of Alaska.
The historical context of each museum acts as a foundation for its current innovations, Angela stated. It’s important to recognize and interrogate the processes and perspectives that have shaped our cultural institutions. Publicly addressing and responding to things like historical associations with agents of colonization and cultural erasure is a way for museums to act on goals of equity, inclusion, and community responsiveness.
This inquiry also provides an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the ways that historical contexts have not held us back from responding to changes. Alaskan museums have been largely accepting and welcoming of the NAGPRA repatriation process of returning artifacts to their rightful owners—more so than many states in the Lower 48. “The responses from communities are much more positive than they were even thirty years ago,” Angela said. “I think NAGPRA has been a big part of that.”
As Angela explained, museums in general are trusted more than any other source of information in the United States. That’s not always the case, however—and certainly not so for all demographics. In order to build and maintain public trust, museums must address where they have gone wrong in the past, learn from their mistakes, and make space for multiple types of expertise. They should fully embrace the co-production of knowledge by including community voices and perspectives. A museum, she explained, “is both a Forum—a place of confrontation, experimentation, and debate—and a Temple, where space is held for preserving and protecting objects of value.” She reiterated the importance of community involvement, listening to the priorities of the people who the institution serves, and “leaving the museum walls” to be a good neighbor and amplify the voices of those outside the museum itself.
Angela earned a BA in Anthropology from the University of Iowa, and an MA in Anthropology from UAF. She also received a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from George Washington University. After earning her Ph.D, she will continue in her role as an influential member of one of Fairbanks’ most visible cultural institutions.