Alaska Association for Historic Preservation | Advocating for History

The Alaska Association for Historic Preservation (AAHP) was founded in 1981 and incorporated in 1984 as a private, nonprofit corporation with a dedication to the preservation of Alaska’s prehistoric and historic resources through education, promotion and advocacy. Preservation of the built environment provides a vital link and visible reminder of the past, emphasizing the continuity and diversity of Alaska.

AAHP aids in an assortment of historic preservation projects across Alaska and monitors and supports legislation to promote historic preservation, serving as a liaison between local, statewide, and national historic preservation groups. Additionally, AAHP publishes a quarterly newsletter and holds educational workshops.

As a state-wide organization, with a home office in Anchorage, AAHP acts as an umbrella organization sponsoring a variety of history, rehabilitation, museums, archaeological, and preservation projects and entities acting as a 501c3 for granting, administration, and fundraising. Our two most prominent in-house programs are the Ten Most Endangered Grant Program and the Preservation Conservation Easement Program. While the Ten Most program funds hands-on preservation efforts on endangered properties and serves as seed money to leverage funding from other sources, the Easement Program allows private and public property owners to take advantage of substantial tax credits while protecting cultural resources.

AAHP is proud to partner with Tundra Vision, Alaska State Museums, Trident Seafoods, the National Park Service, and private entities and individuals on the NN Cannery History Project. Through federal grant funding and generous agency and private donations, this collective effort will compile archives and document stories of those of us that spent time in the glorious and wondrous setting of Bristol Bay processing the bounty of the sea, to be sent worldwide.

Cannery workers of yesteryear and today partake in a humble yet impactful endeavor. Though remote and isolated, the fishing industry and its cannery workers have gifted the State of Alaska with economic prosperity, all the while developing unique multicultural ethos. Due to the nature of the work and locations, cannery workers were driven to developed self supporting environments in which to live and labor, prompting a camaraderie and social system unlike any other line of work.

This project wishes to recapture and celebrate tales of how through the decades, the industrialized community of the NN Cannery dealt with harsh conditions, long hours, and historical events such as the Spanish flu. Through representative artifacts, these stories and the endeavor of fish processing will be shared in a traveling exhibit in an effort for all to comprehend life at the cannery. The acknowledgement that NN Cannery buildings and structures can reiterate its legacy is the goal of the project through a National Register of Historic Places nomination.