Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Play ball! From snowshoe softball to sandlot showdowns, the Alaska Film Archives celebrates the rich history of baseball and softball across the Last Frontier. This lively compilation brings together game-day moments from Fairbanks to Juneau, and from the Pribilof Islands to St. Lawrence Island, spanning the early 1900s through the 1970s. Whether it’s the Fairbanks Goldpanners or the St. Paul Island "Knock Down and Skin 'Em" club, Little League or pickup games, you'll catch glimpses of Alaskans playing ball in all kinds of weather, gear, and terrain.
Included in this compilation are clips from AAF-10087 of the Ed Orbeck Collection, AAF-591 from the Julius and Opal Fowler Harkey Collection, AAF-14553 from the L.C. McMillin Collection, AAF-63 from the UAF Collection, AAF-9686 from the Lowell Purcell Collection, and AAF-23804 from the Richard L. Hansen Collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Also included are scenes from a Goldpanners film currently on loan to the archives. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
Play ball! From snowshoe softball to sandlot showdowns, the Alaska Film Archives celebrates the rich history of baseball and softball across the Last Frontier. This lively compilation brings together game-day moments from Fairbanks to Juneau, and from the Pribilof Islands to St. Lawrence Island, spanning the early 1900s through the 1970s. Whether it’s the Fairbanks Goldpanners or the St. Paul Island "Knock Down and Skin 'Em" club, Little League or pickup games, you'll catch glimpses of Alaskans playing ball in all kinds of weather, gear, and terrain.
Included in this compilation are clips from AAF-10087 of the Ed Orbeck Collection, AAF-591 from the Julius and Opal Fowler Harkey Collection, AAF-14553 from the L.C. McMillin Collection, AAF-63 from the UAF Collection, AAF-9686 from the Lowell Purcell Collection, and AAF-23804 from the Richard L. Hansen Collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Also included are scenes from a Goldpanners film currently on loan to the archives. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
