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SPRI Polar Directory

Museums

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There are 40 entries in the museums directory for United States of America:

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Alaska State Museum

Website:	www.museums.state.ak.us/asmhome.html
Address:	395 Whittier St., Pouch FM, Juneau, AK 99811
Telephone:	+1-907-465-2901
Fax:	+1-907-465-2976
Year of foundation:	Established in 1900 as the Alaska Historical Library and Museum, becoming a separate organization in 1966
Collections:	Carries out research on and collects/displays materials relating to the people and history of Alaska. Sizable collections for the Alaskan Eskimo, smaller Aleut and Athapaskan collections
Publications:	Concepts (1986-, 3pa); Gentle craft: watercolour views of Alaska 1778-1974; Glory remembered: wooden headgear of Alaska sea hunters (Black, 1991); Native Alaskan art in the State Historical Museum, Juneau, Alaska (Keithahn, 1959); Qajaq: kayaks of Siberia and Alaska (Zimmerly); Search for the Northwest Passage: a bicentennial exhibition on the Alaska voyages of George Vancouver (Olson)

American Museum of Natural History

Website:	www.amnh.org
Address:	Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY 10024
Telephone:	+1-212-769-5100
Fax:	+1-212-769-5223
Year of foundation:	1869
Collections:	In addition to displays illustrating the marine and terrestrial animal life of the polar regions, the collections include artefacts relating to northern cultures and to the polar aviator Ellsworth Lincoln. The Hall of Meteorites contains three meteorites brought back by Peary from Cape York, Greenland, including the world's largest. The Library includes the Chambers Polar Research Collection (founded, 1994)
Publications:	Bulletin (1881-); Anthropological Papers (1907-); Natural History (1901-, 12pa)

Anchorage Museum of History and Art

Address:	121 West Seventh Av., Anchorage, AK 99501
Telephone:	+1-907-343-4326
Fax:	+1-907-343-6149
Year of foundation:	1968
Collections:	Large collection for Alaskan history and native culture, with some Siberian and Canadian material. Library
Publications:	Alaska Gallery at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art (Davis, 1990); exhibition catalogues

Antarctic Experience

Website:	www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica
Address:	PO Box 73, Reedsport, OR 97467
Collections:	Run by the Hero Foundation focusing on the Antarctic Research Vessel Hero. There is a visitor and museum centre ashore and it is planned to expand the facilities to form the Richard E. Byrd National Antarctic Center.

Bishop Museum

Website:	www.bishopmuseum.org
Address:	Honolulu, Hawaii
Collections:	Fine holdings of Antaarctic, sub-Antarctic and Southern Ocean invertebrates collected by Gressitt.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Website:	www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh
Address:	Carnegie Institute, 4400 Forbes Av., Pittsburg, PA 15213
Year of foundation:	1896
Collections:	Extensive ethnographic and natural history holdings obtained on over 50 Arctic and several Antarctic expeditions. Library.

Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum

Address:	PO Box 53, Nome, AK 99762
Telephone:	+1-907-443-2566
Year of foundation:	1967
Collections:	Local history, archaeology and anthropology. Nome gold rush.

Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum

Website:	www.cshwhalingmuseum.org
Address:	Main St., PO Box 25, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724
Year of foundation:	1936
Collections:	History and techniques of whaling. Exhibits include scrimshaw and the dory used by Robert Cushman Murphy during his voyage on the Daisy to South Georgia, 1911-12
Publications:	Scrimshaw: folk art of the whalers (Earle, 1957)

Dillingham Heritage Museum

Address:	Pouch 202, Dillingham, AK 99576
Telephone:	+1-907-842-5610.

Field Museum of Natural History

Website:	www.fieldmuseum.org
Address:	Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605
Year of foundation:	1893
Collections:	Large northern collections, particularly for Alaska where Miner W. Bruce obtained many artefacts in the Port Clarence and Kotzebue Sound areas between 1892 and 1897. Other important collections were made by Nordenskiold (Port Clarence, 1880) and Peary (Northwest Greenland, 1891-92)
Publications:	Fieldiana (1895-) [sub-divided into Anthropology; Botany, Geology, and Zoology]

Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology

Website:	www.brown.edu/Facilities/Haffenreffer/
Address:	Brown University, Mount Hope Grant, Bristol, RI 02809
Telephone:	+1-401-253-8388
Fax:	+1-401-253-1198
Year of foundation:	1956
Collections:	Has extensive northern collections almost exclusively from Alaska where the museum has an ongoing archaeological research programme begun by its first director, J.L. Giddings, and continued by the museum's Circumpolar Laboratory under D.D. Anderson
Publications:	Published catalogue: Out of the North: the Subarctic Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (Hail and Duncan, 1989)

Heritage Museum

Address:	301 West Northern Lights Blvd., PO Box 100600, Anchorage, AK 99510
Telephone:	+1-907-265-2834
Fax:	+1-907-265-2002
Year of foundation:	1968
Collections:	Founded by the National Bank of Alaska to provide a showcase for Alaskan culture and history. The Museum displays baskets, weapons, paintings, photographs of the native peoples. Library.

Hood Museum

Website:	www.dartmouth.edu
Address:	Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Collections:	Sizeable ethnographic and archaeological holdings for northern peoples. Collections include Eskimo/Inuit artefacts collected by F.C. and C.G. Churchill (1899-1909), S.P. and A.L. Haight (1953-62) among others. The Athapaskan materials were primarily collected by R. McKennan.

Kodiak Historical Society & Baranov Museum

Website:	www.baranovmuseum.org
Contact name:	Tiffany Brunson, Executive Director
Address:	101 East Marine Way, Kodiak AK 99615, USA
E-mail:	baranov@ak.net
Telephone:	+1-907-486-5920
Open to the public? / Opening hours:	Winter: Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00–15:00; Summer: Monday–Saturday, 10:00–16:00
Year of foundation:	1954
Activities:	Through the operation of the Baranov Museum, the Kodiak Historical Society creates opportunities for the public to explore the natural, cultural and artistic history of Kodiak Island and neighbouring communities. Our collections are catalysts in the learning process and the museum is a community gathering place where knowledge is discovered, shared and exchanged.
Collections:	Extensive collection of objects relating to the Russian and American periods of Kodiak history and objects from Kodiak’s prehistoric and historic Alutiiq peoples as well as from the Aleutian and Polar Regions.

Kotzebue Museum

Address:	Inc., PO Box 46, Kotzebue, AK 99752
Telephone:	+1-907-442-3401
Fax:	+1-907-442-3742
Year of foundation:	1967
Collections:	Archaeological and ethnographic collections for Eskimos and Indians of region.

Mariners' Museum

Website:	www.mariner.org
Address:	Museum Dr., Newport News, VA 23606
Telephone:	+1-804-595-0368
Year of foundation:	1930
Collections:	Archives include papers relating to the US Exploring Expedition (1837-40), including the journal of James Alden. Whaling prints, paintings and scrimshaw.

Milwaukee Public Museum

Website:	www.mpm.edu
Address:	800 W. Wells St., Milwaukee, WI 53233
Year of foundation:	1882
Collections:	Sizeable ethnographic collections, particularly for the Athapaskans and Saami.

Museum of the Aleutians

Website:	www.aleutians.org
Address:	PO Box 648, Unalaska, AK 99685
E-mail:	museum@ansi.net
Telephone:	+1-907-581-51150
Fax:	+1-907-581-1496
Year of foundation:	1998?
Collections:	Muesum's mission is to preserve and share the human history of Unalaska and the Aleutian Island region. Collections include archaeological, ethnological and archival materials.

Mystic Seaport

Website:	www.mystic.org
Address:	75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT 06335
E-mail:	info@mysticseaport.org
Telephone:	+1-860-572-0711
Open to the public? / Opening hours:	Hours vary with the season
Year of foundation:	1929
Collections:	Charles W. Morgan, the only surviving American wooden sailing whaleship, is the major exhibit, together with much else relating to whaling and sealing activities, and some ethnographic materials. Substantial research library.
Publications:	A guide to the manuscript collections of the G.W. Blunt White Library at the Mystic Seaport Museum (Stein, 1983); American maritime documents, 1776-1860 (Stein, 1992); Dictionary of scrimshaw artists (Frank, 1991); Graven by the fishermen themselves: scrimshaw in Mystic Seaport Museum (Malley, 1983)

NANA Museum of the Arctic

Address:

PO Box 49, Kotzebue, AK 99752

Nantucket Historical Association - The Peter Foulger Museum

Address:	PO Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554
Telephone:	+1-508-228-1894
Fax:	+1-508-228-5618
Year of foundation:	1894
Collections:	Whaling museum with displays of whaling artefacts, scrimshaw and South Seas exploration. Library contains the Arctic and Antarctic Book Collection of Benjamin Sharp and a collection of ships logs
Publications:	Guide to the manuscript collections of the Nantucket Historical Association (Haring and Michael, 1986)

National Museum of Natural History

Website:	www.mnh.si.edu
Address:	Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. and Constitution Av., NW, Washington, DC 20560
Year of foundation:	1846
Collections:	Extensive collections from Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland of which very little is on display. Important early work on Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples was carried out by the Bureau of Ethnology which later merged with the Department of Anthropology, within which an Arctic Studies Center was set up in 1988. This has an active research programme on the anthropology and archaeology of Alaska, northern Canada and other circumpolar regions
Publications:	Anthropological Papers (1938-66); Arctic Studies Center Newsletter (1992-); Catalog to manuscripts at the National Anthropological Archive (1975); Explorations and field-work of the Smithsonian Institution (1910/11-40); Guide to the Smithsonian Archives (1978); Handbook of North American Indians (Sturtevant, 1978-); Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo (Fitzhugh and Kaplan, 1988); Northern Studies monograph series; Smithsonian (1970-, 12pa); Smithsonian Contributions [separate series for Anthropology (1965-), Astrophysics (1956-), Botany (1969-), Earth Sciences (1969-), Marine Sciences (1977-), Paleobiology (1969-), and Zoology (1969-)]

National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)

Website:	www.nmai.si.edu
Address:	Smithsonian Institution, Administrative Office, 470 L'Enfant, Suite 7103, MRC 934, Washington, DC 20560
Telephone:	+1-212-825-6700
Fax:	+1-212-825-8180
Year of foundation:	1916 [formerly known as Museum of the American Indian - Heye Foundation and sited in New York. Since 1990, part of Smithsonian and due to open in Washington, DC in 2001]
Collections:	Northern material from Alaska, Canada and Greenland is well-represented in the displays and collections. Extensive library. Exhibits facility: George Gustav Heye Center, One Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004
Publications:	Arctic art: Eskimo ivory (Smith, 1980)

National Museum of the United States Navy

Website:	www.history.navy.mil/museums/NationalMuseum/org8-1.htm
Contact name:	Edward M. Furgol
Address:	805 Kidder Breese Street SE, Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374 USA
E-mail:	navymuseum@navy.mil
Telephone:	+1-202-433-4882
Fax:	+1-202-433-8200
Open to the public? / Opening hours:	Yes. Monday-Friday: 0900-1700; Saturday, Sunday and US federal holidays: 1000-1700
Year of foundation:	1961
Activities:	Exhibits, public and educational programs
Collections:	Contains substantial polar exhibits including the accommodation/housing portion of Byrd's Bolling Advance Weather Base and other memorabilia relating amongst others to Byrd, Ronne and Scott. Also, models of ships used in Dumont d'Urville (1837-40) and Wilkes (1838-42) expeditions to Antarctica.

New Bedford Whaling Museum

Website:	www.whalingmuseum.org
Address:	18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740-6398
Telephone:	+1-508-997-0046
Open to the public? / Opening hours:	Jan-Mar: Tue-Sat 9.00-16.00, Sun 11.00-16.00; Apr-Dec: Mon-Sun 9.00-17.00
Year of foundation:	1903
Collections:	Materials relating to the history of the New England whaling industry. Extensive art collection including scrimshaw and many Eskimo artefacts purchased by whalers at Bering Straits, Hudson Bay and West Greenland. The library has particularly extensive holdings for the history of American whaling, including many logbooks, journals and business records

Peabody Museum of Salem

Website:	www.pem.org
Address:	East India Square, Salem, MA 01970
Telephone:	+1-508-745-1876
Fax:	+1-508-744-6776
Year of foundation:	1799
Collections:	The oldest continuously operated museum in the United States. Founded by the East India Marine Society, whose membership was restricted to Salem men who had navigated in seas near or beyond the Cape of Good Hope or around Cape Horn. Members were enjoined to bring back artefacts obtained on their voyages and the collection includes ethnographic material from Alaska, Canada and Greenland in addition to many items relating to whaling. The Philips Library contains many books describing early voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as ethnographic material for Arctic peoples, a large collection of whaling logbooks, and the Francis B. Lothrop Collection of whaling prints
Publications:	American Neptune (1941-, 4pa); Review of Archaeology (1980-, 2pa); Whaling prints in the Francis B. Lothrop Collection (Ingalls, 1987)

Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum

Website:	http://academic.bowdoin.edu/arcticmuseum
Address:	Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011
E-mail:	glemoine@bowdoin.edu
Telephone:	+1-207-725-3062/3416
Fax:	+1-207-725-3499
Year of foundation:	1967
Collections:	Includes displays of artefacts and photographs associated with the Arctic explorers Robert E. Peary and Donald B. MacMillan. The College Library holds MacMillan's personal library and papers as well as a large collection of papers and photographs concerning Robert A. Bartlett. The Arctic Studies Center, established 1985, seeks to link the resources of the museum and library with teaching and research, and to house travelling exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and educational outreach efforts.

Pratt Museum

Website:	www.prattmuseum.com
Address:	3779 Bartlett St., Homer, AK 99603
Telephone:	+1-907-235-8635
Fax:	+1-9007-235-2764
Year of foundation:	1968
Collections:	Set up by the Homer Society of Natural History to collect, preserve and interpret the natural and cultural history of the Kenai Peninsula, lower Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay
Publications:	Newsletter (4pa); monographs of regional interest

Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology

Address:	University of California, 103 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
Year of foundation:	1901
Collections:	Sizeable Arctic and sub-Arctic collections include material acquired by agents of the Alaska Commercial Company during the period 1868 to 1898 and donated in 1904; and artefacts collected by Charles L. Hall between 1894 and 1901.

San Diego Museum of Man

Website:	www.museumofman.org
Address:	11350 El Prado, Balbao Park, San Diego, CA 92101
Year of foundation:	1915
Collections:	Sizeable northern collections, with Alaska well-represented particularly by the Charles D. Brower Collection.

Sheldon Jackson Museum

Website:	www.museums.state.ak.us/Sheldon Jackson/sjhome.html
Address:	(State of Alaska, Dept. of Education, Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums), 104 College Dr., Sitka, AK 99835
Telephone:	+1-907-747-8981
Fax:	+1-907-747-3004
Year of foundation:	1887
Collections:	Ethnographic material from Eskimo, Aleut and Alaska Indian cultures
Publications:	Faces, voices & dreams: a celebration of the centennial of the Sheldon Jackson Museum (Corey, 1987)

Simon Paneak Memorial Museum

Address:	341 Mekiana Rd., PO Box 21085, Anaktuvuk Pass, AK 99721
Telephone:	+1-907-661-3413
Fax:	+1-907-661-3429
Year of foundation:	1986
Collections:	Focuses on recording and preserving the history, traditions, and artifacts of Nunamiut Inupiat, or inland Eskimos, of Anaktuvuk Pass who base their existence on hunting caribou and sheep. Describes itself as "America's farthest north museum". The museum is named after an early community leader instrumental in the re-settlement of this area and a keen observer of his own culture. Houses the Hans van der Laam Brooks Range Library Collection.

Sullivan County Historical Museum

Address:	PO Box 247, Hurleyville, NY 12747
Telephone:	+1-914-434-8044
Year of foundation:	1960
Collections:	Displays relating to Frederick A. Cook.

Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum

Website:	www.philau.edu
Address:	University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
Telephone:	+1-206-543-5590
Fax:	+1-206-685-3039
Year of foundation:	1885
Collections:	Extensive collection with Alaska and Chukotka particularly well-represented. Major collections are the Hachman-Konig Collection (ca. 1900), and those obtained by Birket-Smith (1933), James Swan (1890), James White (1895), Stefansson and Walter Waters (1920s), Joseph T. Bernard (1924), and Robert Gierke (1910-30). Also over 700 photographic prints of ethnographic interest taken 1880s-1950s.

University Museum

Website:	www.philau.edu
Address:	University of Philadelphia, 33rd and Spruce Sts., Philadelphia, PA 19104
Year of foundation:	1889
Collections:	Extensive Arctic collections, with Alaska particularly well-represented. Library.

University of Alaska Museum

Website:	www.uaf.edu/museum
Address:	907 Yukon Dr., Fairbanks, AK 99775
Telephone:	+1-907-474-7505
Fax:	+1-907-474-5469
Year of foundation:	1912
Collections:	Extensive collections and displays for the natural and cultural history of Alaska. The primary State repository for natural history
Publications:	Alaska mining history: a source document (Heiner, 1977); Otto Speaks (1988-); Setting it free: an exhibition of modern Alaskan Eskimo ivory carving (Larsen and Dickey, 1982); Some warmer tone: Alaska Athabaskan bead embroidery (Duncan, 1984)

University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Website:	http://natural-history.uoregon.edu
Contact name:	Kristin Strommer / Roben Itchoak
Address:	1680 East 15th Ave. Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA
E-mail:	mnch@uoregon.edu
Telephone:	+1-541-346-3024
Fax:	+1-541-346-5334
Open to the public? / Opening hours:	Yes. Tuesday-Sunday 11.00-17.00
Year of foundation:	1936
Activities:	A wide range of family and community programs
Collections:	One of the largest Arctic collections in the lower 48 states, alongside extensive anthropological, paleontological, and geological collections emphasizing Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
Notes:	The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History recently adopted the Jensen Arctic Collection from the Paul Jensen Arctic Museum at Western Oregon University. The Jensen Museum is no longer in operation.

US Coast Guard Museum

Address:	New London, CT 06320
E-mail:	herrick@deseg.uscga.edu
Telephone:	+1-860-444-8511
Fax:	+1-860-444-8289
Year of foundation:	1967
Collections:	Important holdings from Revenue Cutter Service including logbooks of Bering Sea Patrol, photographs, uniforms, Ward Room china and silver, kayak models, and large collection (ca. 200 pieces) of Eskimo carved ivory and bone export goods; all dating from 1880s-1920s.

US Naval Academy Museum

Website:	www.usna.edu/Museum
Address:	Annapolis, MD 21402
Telephone:	+1-301-267-2108
Year of foundation:	1845
Collections:	Artefacts and journals from expeditions of DeLong (1879-81), Greely Relief Expedition (1884), Peary (1905-06), and Byrd (1926). Oil portraits of Kane and DeLong, bust of Byrd, and the Jeanette Monument.

William Hammond Mathers Museum

Website:	www.iupui.edu
Address:	Indiana University, 601 East 8th St., Bloomington, IN 47405
Telephone:	+1-812-855-6873
Fax:	+1-812-855-0205
Year of foundation:	1962
Collections:	Sizeable collection of Alaskan Eskimo artefacts chiefly donated by Mollie Griest and Mrs L.B. Williams, the former collection made at Point Barrow (1916-36), the latter on St. Lawrence Island, Point Barrow and Nome (1942-55). Library.