University of Alaska Museum of the North, Natural and cultural museum in Fairbanks, United States.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is a natural history and art museum located on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, inside a building with a curved white exterior that stands out against the surrounding landscape. Inside, the galleries are spread across multiple floors and hold collections covering geology, wildlife, archaeology, and art from Alaska and the Arctic.
The museum was founded in 1929 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, starting as a small collection of rock samples and preserved animals. It moved into its current building in 2005, which was designed to handle the growth of the collections and welcome more visitors.
The Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery shows work by Alaskan artists, from ivory carvings to contemporary paintings that reflect life in the far north. The pieces come from very different communities, giving visitors a sense of how art has been made across the state over generations.
The museum sits on the university campus and can be reached on foot or by car without difficulty. The space covers a lot of ground, so it is worth setting aside a generous amount of time to move through the galleries at a relaxed pace.
The museum holds the only known restored mummy of an Ice Age steppe bison in the world, an animal that lived in Alaska tens of thousands of years ago. Alongside this, it displays one of the largest collections of natural gold nuggets found in the state, shown together in a single case.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
