Dr. William Fitzhugh
Director, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution has a long history of research and public education in Alaska. After securing information for the Russian America purchase in 1867, there followed decades of collecting and research without active collaboration. In the 1980s, the SI began repatriating human remains and created the Arctic Studies Center. Traveling exhibitions brought SI collections back to Alaska, an office was created at the Anchorage Museum, and in 2010 the ASC installed an exhibition supported by educational programs and partnerships that strengthen Alaskan cultures, languages, and heritage. The question now is, “what next?”
Sponsored by the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, the Yale Univeristy Department of Anthropology, the Yale Univeristy Archaeological Studies Program, and the Peabody Museum.
Photo Credit: William Fitzhugh by James DiLorretto, NMNH