Collections & Educational Resources
Supporting Education & Research For All Ages
The team at the Palmer Museum works year round to compile educational resources and information that tell the story of our community. Explore scanned letters and newspapers from our collection, see finding aids to our collections, browse our historic photo project, and more!
Contents
Yearbooks
This collection of scanned and transcribed yearbooks includes names and photos (where available) of the administrators, staff, teachers, students, and others who attended the Palmer Territorial (Central) School from 1933-1957.
Finding Aids
Finding aids are tools that help a user find information in a specific record group, collection, or series of archival materials. Our finding aids include details about each photo, magazine, or newspaper clipping in our archives.
Newspapers, magazines, and article clippings help to tell the story of the Palmer area. Our collection includes material from early print sources in the 1910s to papers still in circulation in Alaska today.
Colonist Letters
Letters, diaries, and other personal writings offer valuable and unique perspectives on our community’s story and illustrate joys, sorrows, and everyday routines in the past. Read transcripts of original letters sent by colonists in the 1930s.
The Palmer Museum of History and Art collects quality pieces made by local artists or depicting the Palmer area. We are proud to live in a community with such a passion and talent for the arts, and we seek to promote, preserve, and exhibit that creativity.
Discover the history and culture of the Palmer area with this printable activity book, including coloring pages, a maze, a word search and family-friendly recipe. Print on 8.5×11″ paper as single pages or as a booklet.
The Matanuska Valley Farmer’s Cooperative Association was formed in 1936 and adopted the trade name Matanuska Maid, by which it was known for 70 years.
More History Resources
Alaska Digital
Archives
Alaska’s Digital Archives presents a wealth of historical photographs, albums, oral histories, moving images, maps, documents, physical objects, and other materials from libraries, museums and archives.
Palmer Historical Society
The Palmer Historical Society is dedicated to our hometown of Palmer, Alaska, a quaint little town, nestled in the beautiful Matanuska Valley and surrounded by the Talkeetna and Chugach Mountains.
Matanuska Valley Historical Photo Project
Since 2017, we have been working on connecting over 10,000 photographs in the Palmer Museum collection to our community as the Matanuska Valley Historical Photo Project database.
Coming Soon
Check back soon for more educational resources including lesson plans, study guides and more information on Palmer history.
- Palmer history books
- A general overview of the history of Palmer
- Photo of the Month / Artifact of the Month articles
- More partner organizations