Museum of the North

When I was a kid, my father enjoyed recounting tales of his own childhood fortitude.  "When I was your age," he would say, leaning back in his chair, "I walked [insert ridiculous # of miles] to school in the wintertime".  Well, Dad, today I walked 4 miles through a pseudo-blizzard for a round trip from my apartment to the University of Alaska, just so I could visit the Museum of the North.

The Fairbanks campus, established in 1917, was the first branch of the University of Alaska.  World-reknowned research is conducted here in the fields of Arctic biology, Arctic engineering, geophysics, supercomputing and aboriginal studies. The Museum of the North is located on the aptly-named Yukon Drive, and the snow was piling up rapidly as I approached the building:

It's a bit of an architectural wonder, with its asymmetrical shaping and specialized climate-control exhibition areas that house 1.4 million artifacts and specimens:

I especially enjoyed the exhibit on Alaskan Native crafts which displayed astoundingly intricate beadwork in the form of collars, bibs, pouches, and slippers:

I would totally wear this Yup'ik dance headdress (made from cloth, felt, seed beads and wolf & wolverine fur) and even these Yup'ik men's dancing gloves (made from leather, sealskin, seal fur and sinew):

 

There was a wonderful display of spirit masks (with part human/part animal faces, worn during ceremonial dances as an appeal to the spirit of prey animals) made from a variety of materials.  The one on the right is an Inupiat (King Island) maskette made from walrus ivory, mammoth ivory, baleen and feathers:

And there were delicate patterned baskets woven from grass, and a wonderful display on the ulu (an Inuit all-purpose knife traditionally used by women) made from steel, copper, brass and bone and used for skinning & cleaning animals, chopping food, cutting children's hair, and trimming blocks of snow and ice for igloo-building:

I could certainly use an ulu right now, to give myself a much- needed haircut...