Recent Acquisitions

ON VIEW JAN. 8 – FEB. 28

The latest additions to the Anchorage Museum’s permanent collection are featured in a new exhibition showcasing more than 200 acquisitions including paintings, ethnographic objects, photographs, sculptures and historical objects. The permanent collection typically grows through donations from the community or purchases made possible through grants and Anchorage Museum Association funding.

The majority of the art in this exhibition was purchased via the Rasmuson Foundation’s Alaska Contemporary Art Acquisition Program. This fund supports living Alaska artists through museum purchases and enhances the permanent art collections of Alaska museums. Recent purchases include pieces by Denis Keogh of Cordova; Wanda Seamster and Mariano Gonzales of Anchorage; Kathryn Mallory of Girdwood; and Bill Brody and Sara Tabbert of Fairbanks.

Exhibition highlights also include art, photography and objects from the following donated collections:

Dr. and Mrs. Milo H. Fritz Collection
Milo Fritz was a legislator and a prominent ear, eye, nose and throat doctor who served many Bush villages. He arrived in Alaska as a naval doctor in Adak during WWII. This collection includes his medical equipment, his WWII footlocker, and a large number of ethnographic objects he acquired through his work around the state. This collection was donated by his wife, Elizabeth Berry Fritz.

Anchorage Daily News Peter Dunlap-Shohl Political Cartoon Collection
Anchorage artist Peter Dunlap-Shohl drew political cartoons for the Anchorage Daily News from 1983 until 2008. This collection is the entirety of his work: Four drawings a week for 25 years that chronicle the events and controversies of Alaska’s recent history. This collection was donated by the artist and the Anchorage Daily News.

Robert Matsen Photograph Collection
Robert Matsen surveyed and constructed airplane runways across Alaska for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. While traveling, he documented rural Alaska life. The result is more than 3,000 slides that span the 1950s through the 1980s. Highlights include a decade of images chronicling the transition of Anaktuvuk Pass people from a nomadic to a stationary way of life. This collection was donated by his daughter, Carolyn Matsen Buan.

Richard M. Bjorkman Collection
A U.S. Navy sailor stationed in Alaska waters in the late 19th century, Richard M. Bjorkman left behind a photograph collection including pictures of naval operations, village life and Alaska Native people. A series of albumen prints documents the rescue of a ship capsized by ice. These images double the museum’s 19th century photography holdings. This collection was donated by Bjorkman’s grandchildren Mary Ann Feehan Mason and Vincent and Joan Feehan. This collection includes scrapbooks and photographs from prospector and miner Robert Lee Hatcher and his wife, Cornelia, a prominent suffragette. Included in the same gift is a Sydney Laurence painting of one of Hatcher’s cabins. These items were donated by Cornelia Hatcher’s relative Robin Rustad.