About Voices of Sheldon Jackson School and College

Voices of Sheldon Jackson School and College is a project of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, supported by funding by the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rasmuson Foundation.
Interpretive signs were installed in December, 2019. This website and interviews are ongoing.

Origins of the project

Voices of Sheldon Jackson School and College began in 2017 as an effort to present the story of this place as much as possible in the words of the people whose history this is.
The project has two components:

•     interpretive signs with the chronology and the main points of the history of the school
•     this website, with everything possible related to the school and its history, including photographs, interviews, documents, yearbooks, and recordings. The website is designed to allow users to contribute their own materials.

The project grew out of an oral history project that began in 2012, by Alice Smith and Rebecca Poulson, an effort to record the history of the school before it was too late. In the course of those interviews, the need for the current project became clear – as a way for graduates and staff to communicate their perspective and experience to the next generation, and as a way for people whose lives were affected by this place to communicate with each other.
In every interview we heard things that contradicted our expectations. This gave rise to another goal: to share the story with the public. It is extremely complicated, difficult, deep and complex, all of it extremely relevant to where we are, and who we are, today.

The project

A Steering Committee of graduates and former staff worked out content for the signs and what should be covered and how, and reviewed drafts created by the project leader, Rebecca Poulson. Rebecca also did other research into the history of the school, traveling to Juneau and to Philadelphia to locate photographs and use archives.
Next these drafts were reviewed by historians, graduates, and other culture and history experts, including the Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Cultural Resources Committee, and the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood boards, who made important corrections. Permissions were also obtained from graduates quoted on the signs.
Next, there was a public review of the signs on a temporary website, and more comments were received.
Final graphics, and obtaining high-resolution images and permissions from libraries and archives followed, and the signs were manufactured by Pannier Graphics in Pennsylvania and installed and dedicated in December 2019.
The website will be continually added to and updated. There is a massive amount of material to digitize and upload. You are invited to contribute your own stories or material, and to comment, correct or give suggestions at the Contact page.

The main signs are four chronological signs along Lincoln Street: the Industrial School Era, the Cottages Era, the High School Era, and the College Era.
Smaller signs are at the International Hostel on Jeff Davis Street, about the Infirmary, two behind the Laundry Building about the 1911 campus and about school staff, and one to be installed near the Sage Building (Sitka Sound Science Center) about the vocational programs at the school

Acknowledgements

So many people and institutions have been essential to make this project possible.
First, it is important to recognize Lingit Aani, and to acknowledge the Tlingit people, who have owned and taken care of this place since Time Immemorial.
This site is dedicated to the late Chas' Koowu Tla'a, or Teri Rofkar (1956-2016), whose work to share the beauty and depth of Tlingit culture and science remains an inspiration to all who knew her.
The project has generous funding from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The project is sponsored by, and has in-kind support from, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Office staff have been invaluable, especially Drew for the website.
The project grew out of oral history interviews with graduates and former staff. Those interviews, and the website project, would never exist without Alice Smith, whose passion and dedication has driven this work from the beginning.
Steering Committee: This all-star team took a century and a half of complicated history and organized it into a comprehensible, interesting presentation. The committee included graduates, who also happen to be Alaska Native artists, Robert Davis Hoffman, Abel Ryan and Marie Laws; two long-time staff members of the college, Dave Turcott and Kathy Newman; and a member of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp board – also an Alaska Native artist – Mary Goddard.

Graduates and former staff and others have generously shared their experiences here. A list of those interviews is below. This work depends on their generosity. Helen Mercado, Irene Schuler, Henrietta Van Maanen, and Nancy Yaw Davis have also collected and shared documentary resources on the history of the school.

Expert reviewers: Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Cultural Resources Committee, and the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood boards made important corrections. Harold Jacobs, who like his father Mark Jacobs Jr. does important work preserving and documenting Lingit culture, contributed important material and perspective about this place.
In addition, graduates, former staff, historians and culture experts also reviewed the signs and made important corrections.

Libraries and Archives: The Alaska State Library Historical Collections, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the Sitka National Historical Park, the Sitka Historical Society provided high-resolution historical photographs. Documents come from these sources as well as the Internet Archive, the National Archives, the Alaska State Archives, the Library of Congress.
Graduates, Former Staff, Trustees, and Others Interviewed (not all are on video):

List of interviews (not all are on video)

Dick Nelson
Betty Yaw Potter, Bill Davis, Ken Smith, Dick Nelson’s daughter
Greg Austin
Frank and Ruth Roth
Herb Didrickson
Charles and Edie Bovee
Gil Truitt
Laurie Cropley Hill
Marie Laws, Chuck Bovee, Arliss Sturgelewski, Cayrn Coleman, Henrietta Van Maanen, Roger Schmidt
Willis Osbakken
Heather McCarty
Charles Daniels
Holly Keen
Fred Hope
Matt Goff
Nancy Ricketts
Nancy Yaw Davis
Roger Schmidt
Thad Poulson
Robert Hoffman
Pat Fager and Kathy Newman
Rachel (Demmert) James
Scott McAdams and Dionne Brady Howard
Dave Patt
Henrietta Van Maanen and Elaine Strelow
Bob Wheeler
Chris Bryner
Jack and Judy Ozment
Nancy Ricketts
Rus and Marty Braun
Zoltan Barabas, Tom Climo, Jim DiGennaro, Dan Evans, Suha Tokman
Fel Estrada and Molly Kitka
Dick and Mary Goff
Bill and Nancy Yaw Davis
Harry Samato
Bonnie Richards
Harvey Kitka and Bertha Karras
Mabel Moy
Lori Cropley Hill and Mabel Moy
Mary Lou Madden
Abel Ryan
Marie Laws, Maggie Verney, Irene Shuler, Helen Mercado
John Holst
Roger and Mary Hames
Ruth Roth
Lynn Wilbur
Carol Feller Brady
Glenn Howard
Ken, Pamela, and Steve Ash
Alice Zelhuber Smith
Kathy Ruddy (Princeton Hall talk)
Founders Day gathering at Sitka Public Library
Virginia Phillips
Louise Brady
Liz Howard
Ethel Lund

I apologize for anyone I’ve forgotten to thank, and take responsibility for all errors in the signs and website.
Please feel free to contact us with any additions, errors or comments.
We hope these signs and website are only the beginning of investigating and sharing the history of this place.
                            Rebecca Poulson, 1/24/20