The Haines Sheldon Museum. (Jillian Rogers)
The Haines Sheldon Museum is currently hosting their annual Fortnight of Learning. For two weeks, the museum presents nightly lectures from local Haines historians.
Museum director Helen Alten said the Fortnight of Learning started as an effort to educate guides arriving from out of the area to work in Haines.
“They were asking us to do individual training and we thought, ‘Well, why don’t we do some evening lecture series that’ll help people understand and go into depth in certain subjects?’” Alten said.
Four years later it has become a celebration of the history and identity of Haines.
“I think this is a really good opportunity for people to spend a little time being self-indulgent, learning something about their area. And it may be something they think they already know. Generally what I find is even though I think I know a topic, I learn something every time I hear a new speaker on that topic,” Alten said.
This year the lecture series has a focus on history. Topics are diverse, ranging from Tlingit language and culture to shipwrecks of southeast Alaska.Most of the presentations this year are in a classic lecture format. In the past speakers have led historical tours through town, or even led open-ended discussions about local topics.
Although the series only lasts two weeks, recordings of the lectures are preserved in the museum’s archives.
“We have had people like Bob Henderson who gave talks who now don’t exist anymore, and we still have their voice and that knowledge and that talk in a place where people can retrieve it,” Alten said.
The lectures take place weeknights at 6:30 in the Sheldon Museum’s Hakkenin Gallery free of charge. For a full schedule of upcoming lectures, visit sheldonmuseum.org. The Fortnight of Learning ends Friday, May 11.
