Collections

Areas of institutional emphasis are natural science and cultural collections in anthropology, history, art, earth sciences and biology of the Kachemak Bay region. The museum's research collections include approximately 30,000 objects plus library, media collection and archives. An additional 1000 objects form the education collection. The collections constitute a regionally distinctive resource for research, exhibition, and educational use.

For more information, please contact our Curator of Collections, Betsy Webb, bwebb@prattmuseum.org.

 

Seal Hunter Doll
Photo © 1999 Jennifer Leach

The Anthropology Collections consist of about 3,000 objects. Archaeological artifacts excavated from local sites represent well-documented research collections of our earliest known human inhabitants of Kachemak Bay, from Ocean Bay Culture 4500 years BP through Kachemak Tradition to prehistoric Dena'ina Athabaskans around 1400 AD. Ethnographic artifacts include basketry, dolls, fishing and hunting implements, watercraft, household tools, clothing and ornamental objects representing Dena'ina Athabaskan, Pacific Eskimo and Aleut cultures, the three major regional Native Alaskan coastal cultures. One of the rarest artifacts is a well-preserved, 1000-year-old Kachemak Tradition birch bark basket that miraculously survived in a tide-swept cliff. The museum is recognized by the Kenaitze Indian Tribe of Dena'ina Athabaskans as a regional repository for cultural materials, and cares for its repatriated counting cords and newly excavated archaeological materials from the Upper Russian River.

 

 

Harrington Cabin

The History Collection of 4,200 objects features Russian and American influences represented by trapping, whaling, fishing, mining, fox farming and agricultural tools, religious memorabilia, and household items. The historic Harrington cabin is furnished with a homestead collection of hand-tooled equipment, catalogue-ordered household goods, and handmade personal items encompassing the most complete time capsule of self-reliant homestead life in Homer from 1920-1960, along with the 1929 Nordby outhouse, the oldest two-seater in town. Other resources such as maps, nautical charts, surveys, correspondence, newspapers, photographs, oral history tapes, and films document regional homesteading and community development. A treasured collection of thematic quilts, produced by community quilters, portrays local natural and cultural history. Association with the Kachemak Bay Wooden Boat Society has yielded collaborative restorations of three recently acquired historic boats.

 

Salmon Painting
Creek Robbers
© 1986 Marian Beck

The Art Collection of 180 objects includes paintings and sculptures by regional artists, such as a life-sized ceramic harbor seal and vibrant watercolors of salmon fishermen. A newly formulated mission-based Art Acquisition Policy guides the community-based Art Acquisition Committee in thoughtful selection of artworks. Learn more about recent additions to our art collection

 

 

Fossil artifact

The Earth Sciences Collections of 1,600 geological and paleontological specimens include a rare fossil imprint of a local perch, bison and woolly mammoth fossils, glacial erratics carried to Homer beaches and a valuable collection of fossil mollusks representing the diverse, prolific life of our ancient seas. Volcanic ash, pumice, and lava bombs represent active regional volcanic activity.

 

 

Studying a whale carcass

The Biology Collections consist of 5,250 specimens or units. A valuable marine life collection represents a baseline study of marine plants and animals (wet-preserved) and drift/beach materials (dry-preserved) of Kachemak Bay. The marine aquaria contain up to 250 live intertidal organisms and local commercial species such as crab, salmon and bottom fish. A new species of sea squirt, discovered this year in the Homer Boat Harbor, is highlighted. Thirty mounts of marine and freshwater fish feature common species of Kachemak Bay. Mounts, study skins and skeletons of birds represent the 220 species documented locally. A collection of 30 locally salvaged marine mammals is prepared largely as articulated skeletons and is supplemented by a representative collection of mammal study skins, furs, and skeletons of local species. The museum mounted a 54-volunteer salvage effort this summer to recover a beached gray whale in the bay, one of over 100 gray whales that died along the northwest coast during their annual northward migration. A Russian colleague donated a massive rib of an extinct Steller's Sea Cow from Bering Island. A herbarium of 1,715 specimens represents 347 species of plants from around the bay and remote, offshore islands. An outdoor botanical garden portrays regional biotic communities from beach to tundra.

 

 

Pioneer moose hunter

The Photo Archives consist of approximately 6,500 historical images documenting community development and Kachemak Bay and approximately 5,900 images of the museum's institutional history and activities. Ninety-two-year-old Ted Palmer returned briefly to Homer to donate photographs of his homestead life from 1920-1927, the oldest known photographs of family life in this area, and provided an extraordinary oral history interview.

 

 

Whale Quilt

The Quilt Collection consists of 20 natural history quilts that are integrated thematically with the Museum exhibits. Building a permanent collection of natural history theme quilts draws on the artistic strength of local quilters, maintains a community tradition, reinforces the Museum as a focal point of community energy and cooperation, contributes to the programmatic diversity it exhibits, raises significant funds for the Museum's operations, and is downright fun!

 

 

The non-lending Library consists of museological and natural history periodicals, 1,500 books and a vertical file of scholarly papers and pertinent subject information.

 

 

The Media Collection of films, audiocassettes and videotapes is available for loan. e-mail info@prattmuseum.org for more information.

 

 

Kings County Mining Company constitution

The Archives of 275 cubic feet preserve community history, business records and noncurrent collections documentation. The constitution and By-Laws of the King's County Mining Company from 1898 generates much community interest. It is one of the oldest documents in our holdings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Will the Museum Be Collecting?

The Pratt Museum has developed a new Collections Plan with input from the community. Together, we have analyzed what objects we have and what we’re missing, articulated how these objects should serve the Museum's mission and the community’s needs, and created a philosophical framework and vision for collecting in the future. Click here to access the Collections Plan.