Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers
Contributed by Meghan Belin
This Spring begins the Alaska Law Enforcement Museum’s Textile preservation grant project. The staff are focusing on cataloging, assessing, preserving, and sorting the items in the museum which span over 150 years of Alaskan Law enforcement history, as well as items donated from other agencies across the United States and around the Globe.
The massive undertaking will include over 25 pairs of boots, over 50 hats, close to 30 uniform sets, 2 full vintage Safety Bear costumes, dozens of leather belts, holsters, and keepers, and several dozen singular uniform pieces. The grant project is set to run through the end of April 2023 and will end with a full inventory of artifacts with help from Walmart employees who have volunteered to assist with the initial inventory after the cleaning has been completed.
The grant also includes a Museum community Textile preservation workshop which included staff members from several small museums including the Salcha Museum (Salcha,AK), The Veterans Museum (Anchorage, AK), and the Wasilla Museum (Wasilla, AK) to name a few.
New Museum exhibits for this year include an Alaska Railroad Corporation Police display for the ARRCs 100th anniversary, Public safety officer history, and re-designs to the Crime Scene Investigation section of the museum from fingerprinting to Polygraphs.
The workshop took place in early March 2023 and was held at the Alaska Law Enforcement Museum in downtown Anchorage.
We are grateful for being able to complete this project with the grant provided through Museums Alaska, and finish with the help of the local Walmart employees to get us on the right track moving forward.
Be prepared for the Museum's textile items to turn some heads this Summer.
A part of Alaska Law Enforcement History that is not so much new, but being given a new home is the Department of Public Safety (Which includes Alaska State Troopers, Alaska wildlife Troopers, Public Safety Officers, and Court Services Officers [CSOs]) End of Watch wall. This will be part of the main museum room and the addition of CSO Curtis Worland (EOW 12/13/2022) during Officer memorial week in May.
We hope this new location is able to provide a more designated space for visitors and members to be able to view this wall which was previously in the FOAST (Fraternal Order of Alaska State Troopers) Board Room which is located behind the front desk in the museum.
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