Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This film clip shows a flight over Knik Glacier to Palmer and Anchorage, circa 1940, in an aircraft possibly piloted by Floyd Truesdell, son of Archie and Mabel Truesdell. According to notes written by Archie, scenes include "Lake Spenard, Clouds, Mountains close, Glacier Knik, Glacier close, Glacier, Glacier close & Lake George, Glacier close at outlet of Lake Palmer, Palmer, and Landing at Anchorage" (Color/Silent/16mm film).
Archie was a professor of mathematics and civil engineering at the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines—now the University of Alaska Fairbanks—when it first opened its doors in 1922. He later became a building and bridge engineer for the Alaska Railroad in the 1930s. His son Floyd enlisted in the Canadian Royal Air Force in the late 1930s and transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps when the United States became involved in World War II. As crew commander on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Floyd was involved in a mid-air collision with a Royal Air Force aircraft over Norfolk, England, and killed on August 31, 1943. This info and more about the Truesdell Family is available through the Cook Inlet Historical Society at alaskahistory.org/biographies/truesdell-archie-m
This clip is from AAF-23927 of the Archie M. Truesdell Collection, donated by the Colette Family and 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. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
This film clip shows a flight over Knik Glacier to Palmer and Anchorage, circa 1940, in an aircraft possibly piloted by Floyd Truesdell, son of Archie and Mabel Truesdell. According to notes written by Archie, scenes include "Lake Spenard, Clouds, Mountains close, Glacier Knik, Glacier close, Glacier, Glacier close & Lake George, Glacier close at outlet of Lake Palmer, Palmer, and Landing at Anchorage" (Color/Silent/16mm film).
Archie was a professor of mathematics and civil engineering at the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines—now the University of Alaska Fairbanks—when it first opened its doors in 1922. He later became a building and bridge engineer for the Alaska Railroad in the 1930s. His son Floyd enlisted in the Canadian Royal Air Force in the late 1930s and transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps when the United States became involved in World War II. As crew commander on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Floyd was involved in a mid-air collision with a Royal Air Force aircraft over Norfolk, England, and killed on August 31, 1943. This info and more about the Truesdell Family is available through the Cook Inlet Historical Society at alaskahistory.org/biographies/truesdell-archie-m
This clip is from AAF-23927 of the Archie M. Truesdell Collection, donated by the Colette Family and 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. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
