Sitka National Historical Park
Sitka National Historical Park has a wonderful display of totem poles. Their web site tells the story of Alaska governor John Green Brady, who collected totem poles to exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 and at the Louis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, in 1905. According to the NPS: "Concerned that traditional art appeared to be disappearing from sparsely populated coastal villages, Brady conceived the idea of collecting totem poles and bringing them to a place where they could be preserved and people, including tourists, could view them." The totem poles returned to Sitka, and by 1906 they were on display; the site was designated a National Monument in 1910.
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