UA Museum of the North Audio Guide

Wel­come to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Muse­um of the North. 

The curves of the muse­um’s archi­tec­ture entice ravens to come and play in the wind cur­rents along its eaves. Bird Cura­tor Kevin Winker explains the role of ravens in Alaska’s culture.

Gram­my and Pulitzer prize-win­ning Com­pos­er John Luther Adams describes what you’ll hear in the gallery called The Place Where You Go to Lis­ten, the vibra­tions of the earth and sky trans­lat­ed into sound.

Wel­come to the Rose Berry Alas­ka Art Gallery. Lis­ten to an overview of our newest art gallery.

For­mer Arche­ol­o­gy Cura­tor Dan Odess describes how a wide range of dai­ly activ­i­ties, from reli­gious cer­e­monies to comb­ing hair, influ­enced the art of ancient Eski­mo societies.

This seal gut rain par­ka was painstak­ing­ly made to be beau­ti­ful yet func­tion­al. A hunter’s life depend­ed on how well made a par­ka was constructed.

For­mer cura­tor of Eth­nol­o­gy, Mol­ly Lee, describes the beau­ty and his­to­ry of Alas­ka Native art.

Over 1,000 years old, the Okvik Madon­na is a sub­tle yet price­less piece of Eski­mo art.

Mol­ly Lee talks about the incred­i­ble detail of Eski­mo cloth­ing. Did you know that a fur par­ka is made from rough­ly 20 dif­fer­ent­ly shaped pieces. 

James Bark­er describes his style of doc­u­men­tary ethno­graph­ic photography.

Lis­ten to locals describe their ver­sion of the Great Alaskan Outhouse.

For­mer cura­tor of Eth­nol­o­gy, Mol­ly Lee talks about the tra­di­tion­al process of tan­ning a moose hide.

John Man­thei explains how an artist can see more than the rough mate­r­i­al in the begin­ning stages of cre­at­ing a piece of art.

A descrip­tion of the gallery, Our Own Per­spec­tives. In this area you can read how non-artists inter­pret these works of art.

Wel­come to the Liv­ing Room. A beau­ti­ful, relax­ing place to watch how light and shad­ows play on the walls and ceiling.

Jade is an incred­i­bly hard stone that is only found in a 10 x 30 mile strip of Alas­ka in the Kobuk Valley.

A brief descrip­tion of the his­to­ry of Alas­ka and Alaska’s first residents.

A descrip­tion of South­west Alas­ka. Hear a con­ver­sa­tion in rough weath­er on the Aleut­ian Islands 

Lis­ten to a pro­file of the ani­mals that pop­u­late the Pri­bilof Islands.

Bent­wood Aleut hats are made by split­ting a tree into del­i­cate planks, then carv­ing and bend­ing the planks into grace­ful visors.

This tour describes tra­di­tion­al bas­ket mak­ing of Aleut Natives.

A look at items that rep­re­sent the Inu­pi­aq and Yup’ik cul­tures of the West­ern Arc­tic Coast. 

Inves­ti­gat­ing the polar bear, also known as Nanook, the great white bear. 

Lis­ten to a radio clip about a Nenana Ice Clas­sic break-up con­test winner.

A weath­er report spo­ken in the Yup’ik language.

Cura­tor of Earth Sci­ences, Patrick Druck­en­miller talks about a few of the many species of arc­tic dinosaurs.

A descrip­tion of what sys­tem­at­ics and DNA research mean to our scientists.

A descrip­tion of the dec­o­ra­tion styles used by the ear­li­est inhab­i­tants of St. Lawrence Island.

The cres­cent blad­ed knife called ulu is a tra­di­tion­al wom­an’s knife. Look close­ly at an ulu han­dle, there are often spe­cif­ic designs that ref­er­ence the maker.

A descrip­tion of the Yup’ik and Inu­pi­aq belief in Inua, a con­nec­tion between human and ani­mal spirits.

Lis­ten to a descrip­tion of the amaz­ing Umi­ak, an open, high­ly sea­wor­thy craft made of drift­wood and wal­rus skins.

A region­al pro­file of the Inte­ri­or of Alas­ka. This dis­cuss­es weath­er, the econ­o­my, and the peo­ple of the Fair­banks area.

Blue Babe is one of our most pop­u­lar exhibits. Hear the sto­ry of an Ice Age mum­my that is approx­i­mate­ly 36,000 years old.

Fair­banks is a gold rush city. Lis­ten to the sto­ry of how Fair­banks began.

Fair­banks his­to­ry has always been boom or bust. This exhib­it is the largest dis­play of gold nuggets in the State.

The Athabas­can language.

The sto­ry of Kath­leen Car­lo, an Athabas­can mask maker.

Athabas­can embroi­dery, a descrip­tion and his­to­ry of this amaz­ing tra­di­tion­al art.

The dif­fer­ences between Ermines and Weasels.

Hear the sea­son­al round of the Athabas­can peo­ple. This tour describes how and where they lived through­out the year.

Take this chance to hear what a typ­i­cal vil­lage in Inte­ri­or Alas­ka sounds like in the morning.

Bar­ry McWayne describes the art of Kesler Wood­ward, Fair­banks painter.

Lis­ten to a sound­scape of wind blow­ing through birch trees in the Alas­ka interior.

This tour describes our Wool­ly Mam­moth and Mastodon exhib­it. Lis­ten to the dif­fer­ences between these extinct animals.

The Bering Land Bridge was an impor­tant cross­roads between North Amer­i­ca and Eurasia.

South Cen­tral Alas­ka. Hear a descrip­tion of this geo­log­i­cal­ly active area of Alaska.

Kevin Winker, cura­tor of birds, talks about Alaska’s Shore­birds. Hear bird calls and lis­ten to some of the sto­ries of their incred­i­ble migrations.

A short his­to­ry of the Trans-Alas­ka Pipeline. The 800 mile pipeline was built in 3 years while cross­ing some major hurdles.

A sto­ry of Russ­ian Ortho­dox mis­sion­ar­ies work in Alas­ka. This exhib­it shows a trans­lat­ed ver­sion of the Russ­ian Cat­e­chism in the Aleut language.

A descrip­tion of how hunters trap Alas­ka beavers.

An intro­duc­tion to South­east Alaska.

This exhib­it shows what the bluish col­ored Glac­i­er Bear looks like up close.

Tra­di­tion­al Tlin­git bas­kets were made from the roots of Spruce trees.

Tra­di­tion­al North­west Coast art designs empha­sized the essence of an image rather than the whole image.

The Tlin­git language.

A descrip­tion of the salmon’s his­to­ry and life cycle includ­ing the sto­ry of their migra­tion home. 

The Klondike Gold Rush encour­aged peo­ple to do the unimaginable.