Past Temporary Exhibits

A Culture of Eagles Exhibit Poster

In Southeast Alaska, the eagle is an inseparable part of the landscape and local culture.  This strong icon permeates Tlingit legend, myth, art, ceremony and even social structure.

Learn more about these fascinating predators and their precarious history in our valley. November 10^th, 2016  –  October 2^nd, 2017

Haines 50 Exhibit Poster

This exhibit highlighted 50 objects from the Sheldon Museum collection. Each object tells its own story while together these objects tell a brief snapshot of the history of the Chilkat Valley from its geological origins to the many peoples and industries of the area.

Highlights included a basketball uniform from the Quartermaster’s Corps circa 1930s, the blouse of Haines madame and Pioneer Bar proprietress Lou DeMoore, John Schnabel’s cross-cut saw, 2,000 year-old weir stakes, and a porthole from the Clara Nevada, to name a few. On display May 13, 2016 – October 2, 2017.

The term formline, coined by art historian Bill Holm, names the abstract artistic design style used by Northwest Coast people to represent the world around them. Formline can be seen throughout Tlingit art, including paintings,  stone tools, Chilkat blankets and three dimensional sculptures. Formline is based on the ovoid (oval-shaped design units), the origin of which will probably forever remain a mystery.

Formline entails a subtle language of rules and motifs; one piece can very obviously be a killer whale, while another can be so abstract only its creator can say what it is for sure. It has been said, however, that in formline there is right and wrong in design, that certain shapes can only be placed in certain configurations, and only after years of study can an artist begin to discern the language contained in its many forms.

On display November 6^th – December 11^th, 2015. This exhibit was guest curated by Zachary James. Mr. James is now the Collections Coordinator at the Haines Sheldon Museum.

 

Southbound from Skagway to Vancouver, BC, the S.S. Princess Sophia struck Vanderbilt Reef late October 1918. Over 350 People lost their lives to the icy waters of the Lynn Canal in the worst marine disaster of the Pacific Northwest.

“Titanic of the North: S.S. Princess Sophia” was a traveling exhibit that commemorates the 100 year anniversary of this momentous disaster. The exhibit included four interactive touch screens with digital content pertaining to the Sophia, supplemented with objects from the Sheldon Museum collection.

This exhibit was brought to Haines courtesy of the Alaska State Museum, the Pioneers of Alaska – Juneau, and the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. On display in the Hakkinen Gallery November 9th, 2018 through January 25h, 2019. 

 

A collaborative exhibit with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

The Chilkat Watershed boasts abundant biodiversity, rich cultural heritage, and stunning natural beauty. Through a display of artwork from several local artists with deep ties to the Chilkat Valley, “Watershed” showcased the intrinsic ecological, cultural, and aesthetic value of the Chilkat Watershed and its fragility in the face of cumulative environmental impacts. Artists featured in the exhibit included: Katie Ione Craney, Megan Morehouse, Andrea Nelson, Joe Ordonez, Lindsay Johnson, Alan Jones, Jeffrey Moskowitz, Debi Knight Kennedy, Rebecca Brewer, and Sam Jackson.

The title of the show, “Watershed” refers both to the literal, ecological watershed, and to the concept of a “watershed moment”. From an artistic perspective, the show aimed to precipitate a watershed moment that challenges the way we think about the natural systems that support us, and fosters active participation in our place and its dynamic natural systems.

On display Friday, September 7^th through Saturday, November 3^rd  2018.

White Fang Poster

In the winter and spring of 1990, the movie White Fang was filmed in Haines bringing an estimated $2.6 million into town. It changed the town forever.

Locals were involved with almost every aspect of production, working as extras, building and painting sets, housing puppies, scouting locations, cooking spaghetti dinners, joining the camera crew, or driving production members all over the Chilkat Valley – some of the many jobs and roles created with the film in town. Today, many have White Fang props in their homes and even more have stories from the time White Fang brought Hollywood to Haines.

White Fang: When Hollywood Came to Haines told the story of the filming of the Disney adaptation of Jack London’s book. With over one hundred images from the community, oral histories, and objects from personal collections across town, this exhibit celebrated an exciting piece of Haines history. On display December 2, 2016  –  April 15, 2017.

Take a sleigh ride back in time! Haines winter memories include record snow falls, creative methods of getting around, and the sheer fun of bundling up and being outside. Watch Felix “Whitey” Hakkinen’s 1935 snow machine in motion! Marvel at soldiers shoveling through 10 feet of snow at Fort Seward!  Christmas brightened the darkest part of winter with colorful decorations and delicious food.

This exhibit highlighted historic photos, movies, and documents from Haines Sheldon Museum’s archival collection. Recently digitized movies brought life to the still images. In the days before Facebook and Snapchat, soldiers, teachers and Haines House staff captured their unique Haines experiences in photograph albums, providing us many images for the exhibit.

Winter Memories warmed our hearts in the Hakkinen Gallery from Friday, December 6th, 2019 through Friday, January 31st, 2020.

A photography pioneer, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) is best known for his photographic studies of motion and invention of the “zoopraxiscope”, an early motion-picture projector.   Before his breakthroughs in motion sequence photography, Muybridge earned a reputation early in his career as an adventurous landscape photographer. In the summer of 1868, Muybridge was hired to take photographs of the recently purchased Department of Alaska during an expedition led by Major-General Henry W. Halleck, commander of the U.S. Military Division of the Pacific.  Working under his professional pseudonym Helios, Muybridge published 39 views of Southeast Alaska as stereograms (side-by-side pictures taken simultaneously with a single camera). When seen through a viewer called a stereoscope, the two images merge to create a single three-dimensional image. Taken at Fort Tongass, Fort Wrangle, and Sitka, Muybridge’s 39 stereograms were the first photographs ever taken of the Tlingit people, and the first photographs of Alaska to be widely seen by the general public.

1868: Muybridge in Alaska, was an unprecedented exhibition of 17 original Muybridge Alaska photographs, on loan from the private collections of Leonard Walle and Mary Everson. Using modern TwinScope viewers, visitors will get the chance to see the dual stereo views in 3D, as originally intended. The exhibit was curated by Marc Shaffer of Inside Out Media. Production support by the Haines  Sheldon Museum.

This traveling exhibition was supported by the Atwood Foundation, in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, and by a Harper Arts Touring Fund grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts. On display in the Hakkinen Gallery April 5th – May 31st, 2019.