Alaskana is an annotated listing of recent publications on the North featured in Alaska History, the journal of the Alaska Historical Society. It is compiled by Bruce Merrell, Alaska Bibliographer at the Z. J. Loussac Library in Anchorage.

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Compiled by Bruce Merrell, Anchorage Municipal Libraries

Dianne Barske, Mostly Music: The Story of Lorene C. Harrison, Alaska’s Cultural Pioneer (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2000), 248 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-88812561-6, order from Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Life story of Anchorage’s first music teacher, who has served the community for seven decades.

M. I. Belov, Russians in the Bering Strait, 1648-1791, translated by Katerina Solovjova and edited and with an introduction by J. L. Smith (Anchorage: White Stone Press, 2000), 138 pp., cloth, $15.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-9626727-2-6, 2314 Marian Bay Circle, Anchorage, AK 99515. Originally published in Moscow in 1956, Belov’s book was titled Arctic Voyages from Ancient Times to the Middle of the Ninetenth Century. Added as appendices are four other newly translated short historical pieces about Russian eighteenth century voyages to North America.

Lydia Black, A History and Ethnography of the Aleutians East Borough (Fairbanks: Limestone Press, 1999), 385 pp., $37.50 cloth plus $4.00 postage, ISBN 1-895901-26-X, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6420.

Emmalee Blender, Streets to the Past: The Historic Street Name Guide for Petersburg, Alaska (Petersburg: Clausen Memorial Museum, 1999), 132 pp., paper, $11.00 plus postage, P.O. Box 708, Petersburg, AK 99833. Illustrated with photographs, most of which are of fishing boats, which seems appropriate for this southeast Alaskan fishing community.

Rosemary Carlton, Sheldon Jackson, The Collector (Juneau: Alaska State Museums, 1999), 95 pp., paper, $14.95 plus postage, order from Sheldon Jackson Museum, 104 College Drive, Sitka, AK 99835. A study of Jackson, the nineteenth-century Presbyterian missionary, as a collector of Alaskan Native artifacts.

Ann Chandonnet, Anchorage: Early Photographs of the Great Land (Skagway: Wolf Creek Books, 2000), 128 pp., paper, $12.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9681955-6-3, Box 0769, Skagway, AK 99840.

Janet Clemens and Frank Norris, Building in an Ashen Land: Katmai National Park and Preserve Historic Resource Study (Anchorage: National Park Service Alaska Support Office, 1999), 204 pp., paper, request from Lake Clark Katmai Studies Center, 4230 University Drive, Suite 311, Anchorage, AK 99508. An illustrated history of this unique Alaskan park unit.

Howard Clifford, Alaska/Yukon Railroads: An Illustrated History, Steven Hauff, editor (Arlington, WA: Oso Publishing, 1999), 248 pp., cloth, $42.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9647521-4-X, 31328 N. Brooks Creek Road, Arlington, WA 98223. Originally published in 1981 as Rails North: The Railroads of Alaska and the Yukon, this new edition adds fifty pages and incorporates "a significant amount of new research material."

Frances Ann Degnan, Under the Arctic Sun: The Life and Times of Frank and Ada Degnan (Unalakleet: Cottonwood Bark, 1999), 365 pp., paper, $19.98 plus postage, ISBN 0-9669650-0-0, P.O. Box 33, Unalakleet, AK 99684-0033. Memories, interviews, and photographs of the Unalakleet area.

Pat Ellis, From Fish Camps to Cold Storages: A Brief History of the Petersburg Area to 1927 (Petersburg: Clausen Memorial Museum, 1998), 102 pp., paper, $10.00 plus postage, order from Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Illustrated history of this southeast Alaskan town founded by Norwegian fishermen.

Wanda Marie Fields, Now It Can Be Told: Stories of Alaskan Pioneer Ranchers (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2000), 311 pp., cloth, $80.00 plus postage, ISBN 1-888125-44-6, order from the author, P.O. Box 25, Kodiak, AK 99615. Arriving on Kodiak Island as Baptist mission houseparents in 1949, the author and her husband soon turned to cattle ranching. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, this is the story of traditional Western ranching adapted to a very non-traditional location.

Guide to the Probate Records for Alaska, 1885-1960 (Juneau: Alaska State Archives, 2000), 271 pp., comb-bound, request from Alaska State Archives, 141 Willoughby Avenue, Juneau, AK 99801. Lists almost 17,000 cases and the judicial precincts where each case was heard; the records themselves are held at the State Archives in Juneau.

Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery--British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon (Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 1999), 208 pp., cloth, $35.00, ISBN 1-57061-215-3, 615 Second Avenue, Suite 260, Seattle, WA 98104. Reproductions of 322 historic maps from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries.

Herb Hilscher, The Heritage of Alaska (Anchorage: National Bank of Alaska, 1999), 28 pp., paper, request from Heritage Library, P.O. Box 100600, Anchorage, AK 99510. This is a reprint of the 1971 edition. It contains dozens of scripts for television and radio spots which were narrated by Elmer Rasmuson and aired in the 1960s. Each short article is about an incident, character, or period in Alaskan history such as "The First Bells Cast in Alaska," "How to Start an Alaskan Library," or "Dr. Will Chase-Beloved Alaskan."

Marcus F. Jensen, as told to John Jensen, One Thing After Another: Adventures in Alaska (London: Minerva Press, 1999), 337 pp., paper, $17.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-75410-343-9, order from Hearthside Books, Nugget Mall, 8745 Glacier Highway, Juneau, AK 99801. Autobiography of a master big game guide and territorial legislator who arrived in Alaska in 1929.

Nona J. Hall Johnson, Forever Alaska (Eagle River: The Author, 1999), 210 pp., paper, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9653074-4-1, order from Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Alaskan memories of a World War II woman Marine who lived in Anchorage, Seldovia, and Fairbanks.

Aldona Jonaitis, The Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999), 233 pp., cloth, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-97828-7, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. A study of the history and significance of an artifact collection removed from Vancouver Island in 1905 and now housed at the American Museum of Natural History.

Sergei Kan, Memory Eternal: Tlingit Culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity Through Two Centuries (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 696 pp., cloth, $60.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-97806-6, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. A look at southeast Alaskan ethnography and history from 1834 to the present.

James Kari, Draft Final Report: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve, "Revised draft, December, 1999" (Fairbanks?: Denali National Park and Preserve, 1999), 135 pp., spiral-bound. A study of places and names in southcentral Alaskan Athabaskan culture.

Steve K. Lloyd, Farallon: Shipwreck and Survival on the Alaska Shore (Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2000), 202 pp., cloth, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-87422-193-5, or paper, $18.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-87422-194-3, P.O. Box 645910, Pullman, WA 99164-5910. Account of a 1910 winter shipwreck and rescue in Cook Inlet, dramatically illustrated with photographs taken by the ship’s mail clerk, John E. Thwaites.

Emily McAlister and Melinda Tsu, The Kodiak Coastal Defense System at Fort Greely During World War II: U.S. Army, Fort Greely, Kodiak, Alaska (Anchorage: Montgomery Watson for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1999), 22 pp., paper, request from Montgomery Watson, 4100 Spenard Road, Anchorage, AK 99517-2901. Illustrated pamphlet describing this Army post near Kodiak. At full capacity, Fort Greely housed nearly 750 officers and 10,000 soldiers, waiting for an attack by Japan which never came.

Melanie J. Mayer and Robert N. DeArmond, Staking Her Claim: The Life of Belinda Mulrooney, Klondike and Alaska Entrepreneur (Athens: Swallow Press, 2000), 390 pp., cloth, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-8040-1021-8, or paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-8040-0122-6, Ohio University Press, Scott Quadrangle, Athens, OH 45701. Arriving in Alaska as a single woman in 1895, Irish immigrant Mulrooney established a successful retail operation. She joined the Klondike gold rush a few years later, founding towns and thriving as a restaurateur, banker, real estate developer, contractor, and merchant.

Katrina H. Moore, Borestone to Bering Strait: Glimpses of the Adventures of Terris Moore in the Mountains of Three Continents and Flights as a Seaplane Pilot Northward to the Frozen Ocean (Westwood, MA: The Author, 1999), 260 pp., paper, request from Katrina Smathers, 675 Orange Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94022. Biography of a Maine-born mountaineer and bush pilot who became the second president of the University of Alaska in 1949; written by his wife and edited by his daughter.

Dagmar I. Nye, Sixty Odd Years: An Alaskan’s Selected Reminiscences (Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 1999), 288 pp., paper, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-888125-41-1, order from from Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501.

Diane Olthuis, Historic Building Survey Report: Hope, Alaska (Hope: Hope and Sunrise Historical Society, 1999), 129 pp., comb-bound, $18.00 plus postage, order from Hope and Sunrise Historical Society, P.O. Box 88, Hope, AK 99605. An illustrated survey of the buildings in this small Turnagain Arm community.

Judith Ostrowitz, Privileging the Past: Reconstructing History in Northwest Coast Art (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999), 201 pp., cloth, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-7748-0753-9, University of British Columbia, 6344 Memorial Road, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1W5.

Elmer E. Rasmuson, Banking On Alaska: The Story of the National Bank of Alaska-Volume I, by Terrence Cole and Elmer E. Rasmuson, A History of NBA; Volume II, by Elmer E. Rasmuson, Elmer’s Memoirs: Anecdotes and Vignettes of My 90 Years (Anchorage: National Bank of Alaska, 2000), volume I, 523 pp., volume II, 403 pp., cloth. Not for sale to the public. Volume one is a corporate history that tells the story of Alaska’s early banking history and the consolidation that resulted in Alaska’s largest bank. Volume two tells the story of the Rasmuson family’s long connections to Alaska and includes the texts of many speeches, and a biographical section featuring over 60 prominent individuals and businesses.

Penny Rennick, editor, Russian America, Volume 26, Number 4 of Alaska Geographic (Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 1999), 96 pp., paper, $21.95 plus $4.00 postage, P.O. Box 93370, Anchorage, AK 99509-3370. History and culture of Alaska before 1867, focusing especially on the Russian American Company and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Loretta Stoltenberg, Road System Guide to Kodiak Island World War II Sites (Kodiak: Alaska State Parks, Kodiak District Office, 1997), 28 pp., paper, request from Fort Abercrombie, 1400 Abercrombie Drive, Kodiak, AK 99615.

Ted Stone, Alaska and Yukon History Along the Highway (Red Deer, Alberta: Red Deer College Press, 1997), 223 pp., paper, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-88995-145-4, order from Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West Fifth Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501.

Al Swalling, "Oh, To Be Twenty Again-And Twins!" (Anchorage: A & M Publishing, 1999), 262 pp., cloth, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9671230-0-3, P.O. Box 1039, Anchorage, AK 99510. Autobiography of an Alaskan builder who came to the territory in the 1920s to work in Cordova and has been involved in construction every since.

Timothy L. Vincet, Finns, Swedes and Norwegians in the Alaska World War I Draft Registrations, 1917-1918 (Salt Lake City: The Author, 2000), 334 pp., paper, $35.00 plus $4.00 postage, P.O. Box 526163, Salt Lake City, UT 84152. A compilation of 4,500 entries which includes all information from each draft application.

James Wickersham, U. S. District Judge of Alaska: Transcripts of Diaries 1-13, January 1, 1900-February 13, 1908, transcribed by Mary Anne Slemmons, (Juneau: Alaska State Library, 2000), 382 pp., unbound, P. O. Box 110571, Juneau, AK 99811-0571. Transcribed from original diaries held in the Alaska Historical Collections, these are the first thirteen of 47 diaries recording the life and career of Alaska’s first District Judge. Included are his attempt to scale Mount McKinley and other adventures described in his 1938 book Old Yukon: Tales-Trails-and Trials.