Entry No. 3 — the Anchorage file — filed under: oddities
ARLIS Wildlife Realia Collection (Alaska Resources Library)
“reportedly the only library in the U.S. with a trove like this”
A working research library that quietly lends out taxidermy: since 1997 the Alaska Resources Library has amassed hundreds of furs, skulls, baleen, polar bear paws, whole mounted ducks and other 'realia' from the Dept. of Fish and Game's furs-mounts-skulls collection. Anyone with an Anchorage, UAA or ARLIS library card can check a specimen out for two weeks, signing a statement of responsibility and keeping mounts in the library's Plexiglas cases. It is reportedly the only library in the U.S. with a trove like this.
The move: Go browse the open shelves of skulls and pelts together, then actually check out a wolf fur or a walrus skull on a library card and take your strange borrowed companion home for a two-week 'guest.'
📍 Before you go ARLIS sits on the first floor of the UAA/APU Consortium Library on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, off Providence Drive in Midtown. The realia lives behind an unmarked door inside the library, so head to the ARLIS reference desk and ask staff to point you toward it. The desk is staffed on weekdays, though the collection stays browsable into evenings and weekends whenever the Consortium Library building is open — worth confirming current hours before a trip. Campus parking is paid and permit-controlled, so build that in. Easy to pair with a wander around the wider UAA campus.
- 📍 University/UAA area (Midtown Anchorage)
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: smithsonianmag.com · Official site
last checked: 2026-06-06