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The Anchorage Museum of History and Art at the Rasmuson Center is a division of the Cultural and Recreational Services Department of the Municipality of Anchorage. A world-class museum located in the heart of Alaska's largest city, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art began as a public-private partnership to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The Museum opened its doors in 1968 with an exhibition of sixty borrowed Alaskan paintings, and a collection of 2,500 historic and ethnographic objects loaned from the local historical society. In 1986 the museum underwent a major 140,000 square-foot expansion. As the facility grew, so did the Museum's collections. The permanent collection now numbers 17,500 objects plus an education collection of roughly 2,000 artifacts, and more than 350,000 historical photographs. Operating beyond the walls of its building, the Museum is also responsible for the Municipality's 276 works of public art.
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