Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Caroline "Carrie" Mary Stipek (later McLain) was born in 1895 in Astoria, New York. Her father, Vaslov William Stipek, left for the Klondike gold rush in 1897. He returned twice to New York over the next eight years. Her mother, Kristiny Stipek (née Varousove), died in 1905. After that, William moved Carrie, her three sisters Barbara, Anne, and Helen, and her brother Frank to Nome. She was raised there, became a teacher, and married Arthur McLain. She then worked as a welfare agent. She became Nome's first woman city clerk in 1943. She served in that position for 14 years.
McLain became known for her extensive knowledge of the region. In the late 1950s, she started collecting items of historical value, and collected oral histories and photographs as well. The city donated a small property for a temporary museum in 1965. In 1967, the state funded a shared space for the museum and the library. Others started to donate photographs, stories, and artifacts as well. She died in 1973. Afterwards, the city renamed it the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum. In 2016, the museum moved to its current location in the Richard Foster Building. The building also houses the Kegoayah Kozga Library and the Katirvik Cultural Center.
There is a permanent exhibit detailing the cultural and environmental history of the area. More than 50 community collaborators participated in interviews, shared their stories, and contributed photographs for the exhibit. The permanent exhibit includes historical and cultural objects from the Bering Strait region. There are interactive elements.
Sources
Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum / Nome, AK, The City of Nome, Alaska. Accessed July 20th 2020. https://www.nomealaska.org/department/index.php?structureid=12.
Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum, Alaska.org. Accessed July 20th 2020.