Traveling Exhibit How to Eat Canned Salmon
Canned salmon was an unfamiliar product during the first decades of the industry’s growth in Alaska. Few Americans knew how to eat canned salmon. The canned food industry and the new field of advertising grew in tandem. They designed colorful labels, appealed to specific market segments, and used the allure of Alaska to entice consumers to eat salmon from a can.
This exhibition looks at how advertising emerged as an essential component of the salmon industry following the opening of the first canneries in Alaska in 1878.
Exhibit Layout
The exhibit layout consists of 10 banners, a hands-on interactive component, and a cookbook.
Banners
The banners highlight the formation of the Alaska Packers Association, advertising campaigns, and the World’s Fair. You’ll also find romanticized Arctic themes and how label design changed with printing techniques. Additionally, it focuses on the specific market groups targeted by advertisers.
Interactive Component
The exhibition features a fun hands-on interactive component. Inspired by classic block puzzles, the Salmon Can Spinner Puzzle offers a fresh twist with its colorful salmon can label designs (3 to each spinner) and possible combinations. Above the Spinners, visitors encounter ecosystem questions and can explore salmon can labels to learn about how vital salmon are to various ecosystems. Visitors can also discover the five different types of salmon. This is old-school, non-video, interactive hands-on learning that kids and adults grasp intuitively and usually stay engaged with to finish. Through the different themes used in the label illustrations, visitors learn about the mythology of Alaska, and market needs and demands driving product.
Cookbook
Additionally, the exhibition includes a reproduction of the cookbook, How to Eat Canned Salmon. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis featured this cookbook in 1904.
Exhibition Specifications
Ships in 2 Travel Crates
- Crate 1: 48" x 30" x 26" weight approx. 210 lbs.
- Crate 2: 45" x 43" x 32" weight approx. 275 lbs.
Includes
- 10 banners (aluminum bases and uprights) on the history of marketing canned salmon. Banner dimensions: 33” w x 80” h
- One hands-on interactive. Wooden structure with drawer slides showcasing salmon can labels by theme. Power needed for LED lighting. Place near a 120-volt electrical outlet. Dimensions: 34” l x 24” w x 38.5” h
- One reproduction of the How to Eat Canned Salmon cookbook and its pedestal.
Book Dimensions (open): 10.5” w x 7.625” h
Stand Dimensions: 13” l x 8.5” w x 24” h
Approximate Size
- 32 linear feet, not including space between
Anjuli Grantham curated How to Eat Canned Salmon as part of Mug Up: The Language of Cannery Work - a partnering exhibition with guest curator Katie Ringsmuth and the <NN> Cannery History Project.
The Alaska State Museum developed How to Eat Canned Salmon with support in part from the Maritime Heritage Grant Program administered by the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior through the State of Alaska Historic Preservation Office.
Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.
