Thursday, June 23 Anchorage Museum

We had been paying careful attention to weather forecasts and there was a 30% chance of rain, with tomorrow supposed to be beautiful.  We decided to do our excursion tomorrow and go to the Anchorage Museum today.  We slept in later and made a not wonderful choice of having breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel.  The food was quite ordinary and service very slow, considering there were very few other customers.

Our Smithsonian badges got us in free to this wonderful museum, including the separate admission to the special show on Mastodons and Mammoths.  Several local artists were showing / selling their wares in an area just off the lobby.  One of them had a piece in an exhibit upstairs of contemporary art.

The first exhibit we saw was a series of paintings and drawings of Alaska from the late 18^th and early 10^th centuries.  When they were restoring a pair of paintings of Sitka harbor that were donated a few years ago, the restorers discovered that the major boats and ships in the harbor had been painted out, probably not by the original painter.  They displayed photos of the paintings before the offending paint had been removed.

Next was a roomful of landscape paintings of Alaska, there were some contemporary ones and some traditional ones that were quite striking.  It was great to have them in the same room to notice the similarities and differences of the styles.

They had a big room full of large scale “science toys” that were fun and educational for all ages.  Jim had enjoyed similar things at San Francisco’s Exploratorium and the science museum at Winterthur, Switzerland.  The children as well as the adults were actively involved with all of these hands-on experiments.

Our main objective was to see the exhibit put on by the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center.  This is a joint collaboration of the National Museum of Natural History, where Jim Volunteers, and the National Museum of the American Indian, where Ardith volunteers.  One of her tasks was to organize and file all the paperwork for the NMAI’s part of the loan.  The loan is for 10 years with the possibility of extension.

The core of the exhibit is a series of about 10 huge cases, each perhaps 50 feet long, 10 feet high and 5 feet wide.  Each side of each case displays artifacts from one nation / tribe, most from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  

A few feet from one end of each case is a video with someone from that tribe telling of their cultural experiences and with scenes from its region.  At the other end of each case is a touch screen that makes it easy to find a description of each item in the case.

Some of the items that we thought were very special included a child’s parka made of 2 layers of rabbit fur, 2 different styles of waterproof jackets used while kayaking, several dog blankets, and a mask whose eyes could be moved by pulling a string.

2 different tribes had bags made from complete, small seals.  These were used when men went on fishing expeditions.  They would keep a change of clothes in the bag plus dried grass that would help keep them warm if they got wet.

2 photo exhibits, shed light on the area’s past.  One showed scenes from the gold rush, the other showed the dramatic change after World War II when the local fishing fleet switched from sail to power boats over a 2 year period.

Another exhibit showed the history of basket making in the region.

The featured temporary exhibit was Mammoths and Mastodons, assembled by the Field Museum in Chicago.

This exhibit has a lot of wonderful old bones from these massive creatures and a lot of clear explanations of how scientists learn about these long-extinct behemoths.  They told the story of Lyuba, a baby mammoth found almost completely intact in Russia.

Jim liked the graphic showing the relative sizes of mammoths, African elephants, mastodons and pygmy mammoths.  Another compared Ardith and a mammoth.

Two miscellaneous pieces of note: scrimshaw on walrus tusks showing presidents Washington and Lincoln and Russian blockhouse intended for defense of Russian settlers against possible native attacks, but never used.

After several tries we linked up with Darian LaTocha who is the collections manager of the museum.  He had previously worked at the National Museum of the American Indian and knew several of the people Ardith works with there.  He gave us a guided tour of the exhibit called (Re)Emergence: Contemporary Native Art and Design that he curated.  He said that he got to pick his favorite pieces of contemporary art that the museum has collected.  

Ardith especially liked a piece called Mask Belt II by Denise Wallace, a friend of one of Ardith’s colleagues at NMAI.  Each of the small masks on the belt opens up to reveal a small fossil.  The silver work is exquisite.

We split a turkey sandwich for our lunch in the museum’s cafe, and added a cup of very tasty soup.  We had a great view as we ate our lunch.

We returned to Sacks for dinner, since we loved our soup and salad 2 days ago.  The place was full, so we ate at one of their outdoor tables.  It was a bit cool, but we got to see lots of things happening along the street.  Jim had 2 appetizers for his meal. One was a bruschetta made with golden raisin puree, carrot salad, and manchego cheese on toast points.  The other was Halibut Bombay with curry, Asian vegetables, cucumber mint raita, rice and fresh made pita.  Ardith had Filet of Beef with celery and brie Yukon gold mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, leeks and a rosemary tomato jam. 

We also wanted to try their desserts with Ardith enjoying a flourless chocolate cake that was surprisingly light and Jim savoring Russian Crème – vanilla crème with fresh pineapple & papaya.