Sami Gákti, river boats and rare fossils
Museum collections consist of sources, capable of telling stories about everything from local history and personal stories to world history and museum history. Collections can even give us hints about which objects have been considered worthy of preserving through time.
The collection at Alta Museum aspires to be representative of Alta's local history.
Alta Museum’s collection consists of more than 3000 objects and 6500 photographs. In addition, we are responsible for eight historical buildings and fourteen boats. The collection contains, amongst other things, furniture, photographs, textiles, books, sound recordings, minerals, fishing equipment and the M/K Vally, still seaworthy after more than a hundred years. Most of our objects stem from the 20th century, mainly from the period after 1950. This is a result of the scorched earth tactic employed by the Nazis in Finnmark during the Second World War, when much of our cultural heritage was lost.
The museum’s photography collection consists mostly of private photos donated to the museum. Photos can be invaluable records of their time by adding context and new information, and bringing us closer to people of the past.
The museum collection is part of our common cultural heritage, and we are therefore committed to the work of publishing our entire collection to the website Digitaltmuseum.no.