The More You Look

In this special spotlight episode, we catch up with Angela Linn, UAMN Senior Collections Manager for Ethnology and History as she led the decoration of the museum’s holiday tree with ornaments donated to the museum by Grace Berg Schaible.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Host, Roger Topp spent a day in June visiting the closest 2023 museum archaeology site to Fairbanks, a nine-year-old dig of an 8,000-year-old archaeological feature on the Hollembaek farm near Delta, Alaska, and one where the field crew had already spent several weeks that summer, with as many as ten staff, students, and volunteers rotating through the camp at one time. Seven archaeologists were on location at the time, including Blue, the camp dog, and excavating what might be the second oldest house feature in Interior Alaska. 

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

In 2023, long-time manager for the UAMN Genomics Collection, Kyndall Hildebrandt left the position, and Mammals Collection graduate student Mallory Gulbranson took responsibility for the collection’s multiple labs, research support, and cryovats. Director of exhibits and program host, Roger Topp had the opportunity to chat with Kyndall and Mallory about career trajectories and student opportunities, about the inception and growth of this unique museum collection, and what fun lies ahead for research support and for education and public outreach.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

The bowhead whale is an iconic arctic species inextricably tied to Native cultures in western and northern Alaska and a rare success story in marine mammal conservation. In spring of 2021, the museum and partners articulated a bowhead whale skeleton of a young male harvested by Alaska Native hunters in 1963 near Utqiaġvik and in the museum’s possession since 1965. The whale skeleton is now suspended in the museum’s lobby. 

As the crew worked to clean and repair, drill and cut and shape and attach the bones together, the height of the pandemic meant the museum’s auditorium was closed to shows–and the space was available for three months of specimen preparation, as outside the lobby ceiling was remodeled to take the weight of the bones, steel, epoxy, and silicone. Interviewed as they worked, Aren Gunderson, Lee Post, Ron Inouye, Gail Priday, and Marissa Breslin, talk about the planning, reconstruction, and mounting of one of UAMN’s largest objects.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

UAMN holds over 2.5 million objects across its 10 research and teaching collections: Earth Science, Fishes, Mammals, Archaeology, Fine Arts, Ethnology and History, Ornithology, Entomology, Documentary Film, and the Herbarium. Here, curators discuss what many might believe is the best part of the job: the fieldwork. Getting out of the office, the lab, the classroom, the compactor–and getting back into Alaska. How do the researchers plan for weeks living and working at a campsite? How do they prepare students for remote travel, and how do they manage the sometimes-harsh seasons of the north? This is the first in a multi-part series that will air at different points throughout the year.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

The stampede trail bus, or Bus 142 has come to the UA Museum of the North. The bus was made famous by the death of Christopher McCandless, John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, and the subsequent movie of the same name.

The condition of the bus when it was removed from the trail and the process of preparing any object for exterior exhibition at the museum mandates professional conservation of the object. Midway through this process at the UAF Engineering Department’s High Bay, UAMN Exhibits Director, Roger Topp, spoke with then Museum Bus Conservation Project Manager, Della Hall and Project Director and Museum Senior Collections Manager for Ethnology and History, Angela Linn about the process and project management to that point. The surprises. The frustrations. The unexpected but inspiring dialog that comes from caring for and exhibiting an object steeped in controversy and point of view.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

In 2017, the museum opened the second Expedition Alaska show, one of an ongoing series of exhibits that highlights contemporary museum collections research. This show took a look at the work of the Mammals Collection and specifically, museum research into Hoary Marmots. Here, Link Olson, University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and Curator of the UAMN Mammals Collection talks about the research that led to that exhibit, ongoing research into marmot habitat, melanism, and predation, and how  collecting practices have expanded and advanced over recent decades.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

For more than ten years, UA Museum of the North Curator of Entomology, Derek Sikes has traveled to the remote Aleutian volcano, Kasatochi, in order to help study how plant and animal succession reboots, how species are returning to the island after the supposed slate-cleaning of the 2008 eruption. Dr. Sikes discusses this ongoing project in light of successional ecology, Darwin and the heterotrophs first hypothesis, and the daunting work ahead required to fully catalog Alaska's arthropod biodiversity.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.

Hello and welcome to The More You Look, a podcast from the UA Museum of the North and your behind-the-scenes journey into museum collections, research, exhibits, and public programming from Fairbanks Alaska. We hope you’ll join us in the months and years to come as we talk about special exhibitions in development, and changes to look for in the permanent galleries. Not just the what, but the how and why. Learn about new programs and new ways to get involved.

Curators will discuss the latest field season and collections managers what new finds have come to our labs to be cataloged, studied, and made available to researchers worldwide. We’ll get a look at major projects on the horizon and notable ones from years past. We’ll visit the museum labs–and field camps throughout Alaska and gain a better understanding of not only what this museum is within and without its walls, but quite possibly what discussions take place within any art and natural and cultural history museum that you might venture inside. 

We hope you’ll have a listen. We hope you’ll take a look. Subscribe now and share. The museum is nearing a hundred years old and we’re far from the start of this journey. Between us and you, the listener, we’ve a lot of catching up to do. And the more you look, the more you find.

The More You Look is a production of the UA Museum of the North, on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River. UAMN illuminates the natural history and cultural heritage of Alaska and the North through collections, research, education, and partnerships, and by creating a singular museum experience that honors diverse knowledge and respect for the land and its peoples.