University of Alaska Museum of the North

About

The University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) occupies a striking wave-and-glacier-inspired building on the UAF campus in Fairbanks, designed by Joan Soranno and John Cook and widely considered one of the most architecturally distinctive museums in the country. Since opening in 2005, its organic curvilinear form has become an iconic symbol of the interior Alaska landscape it interprets. The museum holds more than 2.3 million specimens and objects across nine scientific collections spanning archaeology, earth sciences, entomology, ethnology, fine arts, fish, genomic resources, herbarium, mammalogy, and ornithology. It is the largest repository of Alaska's natural and cultural heritage in the world. Signature holdings include the 'Blue Babe'—a Pleistocene steppe bison mummified 36,000 years ago and the only complete large ice age mammal ever found in Alaska—along with Alaska Native objects spanning thousands of years, a world-class gold mineral collection, and a growing collection of Arctic dinosaur fossils. The Gallery of Alaska organizes the collection around six regional ecosystems—Bering Sea, Boreal Forest, Gates of the Arctic, Southeast Alaska, Interior Rivers, and Arctic Ocean—with live animals, natural history specimens, and cultural objects presented together to tell an integrated story of each place. The Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery hosts Alaska art from pre-contact works through contemporary pieces. A new Walt and Marita Babula Planetarium recently opened on the UAF campus, adding immersive astronomy programs to the museum experience. Education offerings include dedicated Homeschool Day programs, school field trips, family workshops, ARTSci teen programs, and summer enrichment. University researchers working in museum collections frequently give public talks, and the museum's outreach programs reach schools throughout rural Alaska.

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