Sheldon Jackson Museum is an Alaska State Museum located at 104 College Drive – a short walk from downtown. Constructed in 1897, it was the first concrete building in Alaska and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.
Artifacts on exhibit include kayaks from the Inupiaq communities of King Island and Kotzebue, elaborate Yup’ik masks from the Kuskokwim and Yukon River deltas, grass baskets from the Aleutians, Tlingit totem poles, and rare argillite carvings by Haida Gwaii artists.
With nearly 6,000 examples of Alaskan Native art and artifacts spanning from thousands of years ago to the present day, the museum is worth a visit. There’s always something new to discover at the oldest museum in Alaska – whether you’ve just arrived in Sitka or have lived here for decades.
The Sheldon Jackson campus, where the museum is located, is the former site of the Sitka Industrial Training School, a boarding school for Alaska Native youths, founded in 1878 by missionary Fannie Kellogg and John G. Brady, who later became governor.
According to the museum’s original founding constitution, passed Oct. 24, 1887, the organization’s purpose was “to collect and preserve in connection with the Sitka Industrial Training School, specimens illustrative of the natural history and ethnology of Alaska and publications relating thereto.” Rev. Sheldon Jackson, according to personal correspondence, wished to “have on hand for study by the students, the best specimens of the old work of their ancestors” in order “to show the coming generations of Natives how their fathers lived.”
Sheldon Jackson Museum offers many events throughout the year. In 2023 the museum said its public programs were 82 percent Alaska Native driven, designed and delivered. One of its most popular offerings is the Alaska Native Artist Residency Program. It brings Native artists from around Alaska to the museum to share their artwork through public lectures, demonstrations and art classes.
Through support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, Alaska Airlines, Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum, and private donors, artists are able to work at the museum in an open-studio-like format most days from late spring or early summer through mid-fall. Check www.friendsofsjm.com for a schedule.
Admission fees are $9 general, $8 for those age 65 and older, and free for those age 18 and under.
For more information, call (907) 747-8981; visit the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum Facebook page, friendsofsjm.com; or the museum website museums.alaska.gov/sheldon_jackson/sjhome.html.
