The Baranov Museum collects, preserves and makes available a wide range of objects and artifacts created or used in coastal southwest Alaska. The Collections contain more that 2,000 objects dating from several thousand years ago to the present. A comprehensive collection of 18th and 19th century Alutiiq and Aleut (Alaska Native) material culture includes items from daily life as well as ceremonial objects. The Museum cares for a 26-foot long, wood frame Alutiiq baidarka (kayak), covered in sea lion skin, constructed in the late 1800’s.

A historical collection from the Russian and early American eras in Alaska includes tools, weapons, trade goods, textiles and household utensils. Outstanding among the Russian pieces are examples of seal-skin currency printed by the Russian American Company in the 1820’s, an iron bust of Tsar Alexander I brought to Alaska in 1804, and Russian Orthodox iconography.

Alaskan art is well represented the collection (approximately 500 pieces), including oil paintings, watercolor, pen & ink, sculpture, scrimshaw, carvings, egg tempera iconography, and multimedia. Artists represented in the collection include Sydney Lawrence, Eustace Ziegler, Joshephine Crumrine Liddell, Alvin Amason, Peter Lind, Sr., Jacob Simeonoff, Jim Dillard, Shari Hazzard-Doyle and Bruce W. Nelson, among many others.