The Alaska Women's Hall of Fame (AWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Alaska for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. It was conceived by the board of directors of the Alaska Women's Network (AWN) in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood. The large inaugural class of fifty women were inducted weeks after that anniversary, on March 6, 2009, with subsequent classes inducted every year since. As of the class of 2015, 135 women and one organization, the Sisters of Providence,[1] have been honored.[2] The principal organizations involved with the AWHF are the Zonta Club of Anchorage, the YWCA, Alaska Women for Political Action, the Anchorage Women's Commission, the University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Women's Network and the ATHENA Society.[3]
Iñupiaq Eskimo from Utqiaġvik, Alaska; Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission; President and CEO of Arctic Slope Native Association; spearheaded development of a hospital in the North Slope
Anchorage school board member. Director of Alaska Women’s Resource Center and the Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis Shelter, member of the Anchorage Assembly
Anchorage Municipal Attorney, Alaska State Director for US Senator Lisa Murkowski, Association of American Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, Board of Regents of the University of Alaska
Public health nurse. Second wife of Bill Beltz, the first president of the Alaska Senate following statehood. The building housing the Anchorage municipal health department (the original location of what is now Alaska Regional Hospital) is named for her.
Alaska House of Representatives, sponsored bill to create Alaska Commission on the Status of Women, was serving as a member of the cabinet of Governor Bill Sheffield at the time of her death
From a longstanding Douglas family, influenced by childhood experiences at TsimshianIndian village, became an advocate for health education and care for native peoples.
Pioneer educator on Kodiak Island. In 1976, her home in downtown Anchorage became the site (and she became the namesake) of the Peterson Tower, an office/condominium highrise where she continued to reside.
Educator, influential in starting public broadcasting in Anchorage. Mother of Charles Wohlforth, who himself has long been associated with Anchorage's public broadcasting outlets.
Civil rights activist of the Iñupiat, whose 1944 challenge of Alaska's segregation policies was a factor in the passage of Alaska's 1945 Anti-Discrimination Bill.
Of Iñupiaq and Russian ancestry, known as the Queen of the Reindeer, became the owner of the largest reindeer herd in Alaska after challenging Alaska's laws that disqualified women from owning property
U.S. Commissioner, magistrate and District Court judge in Bethel, the first Alaska Native and first non-lawyer to be appointed to an Alaskan state judgeship
Suffragist, temperance advocate. A national-level operative with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Cornelia Templeton Jewett visited Alaska in 1909, where she met and married Robert Lee Hatcher, the namesake of Hatcher Pass. Remaining in Alaska, she lobbied the newly formed territorial government for the right of women to vote, which was the first law passed by the territorial legislature, and for passage of the Bone Dry Law, which preceded and outlasted the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Lawyer, Alaska Constitutional Convention delegate, Alaska Statehood Commission, newspaper and radio correspondent reporting on the territorial legislature.
Longtime aide to Ernest Gruening, Alaska Constitutional Convention staff, Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1978, Alaska House of Representatives
First white woman to live in Alaska, cofounder of first government structure on Kodiak Island, helped bring the Russian Orthodox Church to Alaska. Wife of Grigory Shelikhov
Alaska is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in the United States. It borders the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border, in the Bering Strait, with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. Technically, it is a semi-exclave of the U.S., and is the largest exclave in the world.
Robert Christian Boes Hansen, popularly known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983. Hansen abducted, raped and murdered at least seventeen women. Many of the women abducted were released by Hansen into the wilderness and hunted with a Ruger Mini-14 and hunting knives. Hansen was captured in 1983 and sentenced to 461 years' imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died in 2014 of natural causes at age 75.
Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 398,328 in 2020, accounting for more than half the state's population. At 1,706 sq mi (4,420 km2) of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the U.S.
Mahala Ashley Dickerson was an American lawyer and civil rights advocate for women and minorities. In 1948 she became the first African American female attorney admitted to the Alabama State Bar; in 1951 she was the second African American woman admitted to the Indiana bar; and in 1959 she was Alaska's first African American attorney. In 1983 Dickerson was the first African American to be elected president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. Her long legal career also helped to pave the way for other women attorneys. In 1995 the American Bar Association named her a Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement honoree.
Bettye Jean Davis was an American social worker and politician. She was the first African-American to be elected as an Alaska State Senator in 2000.
Joan Naviyuk Kane is an Inupiaq American poet. In 2014, Kane was the Indigenous Writer-in-Residence at the School for Advanced Research. She was also a judge for the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize. Kane was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018. She has faculty appointments in the English departments of Harvard College, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and most recently, Reed College.
The Alabama Women's Hall of Fame honors the achievements of women associated with the U.S. state of Alabama. Established in 1970, the first women were inducted the following year. The museum is located in Bean Hall, a former Carnegie Library, on the campus of Judson College in Marion, Alabama. It became a state agency in 1975 by an act of the Alabama Legislature. The organization is governed by an eleven-member board. They are elected to three-year terms with a minimum of one board member from the fields of art, business, community service, education, law, medicine, politics, religion, and science. In addition to the board, the President of Judson College and Governor of Alabama both serve as voting members.
The Arizona Women's Hall of Fame recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Arizona for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. In 1979, the office of Governor Bruce Babbitt worked with the Arizona Women's Commission to create the Hall of Fame. The first inductees were in October 1981. During its first decade, the Hall of Fame was overseen by the Arizona Historical Society and the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records. A steering committee would each year select a varying number of women to be inducted. The 1991 inclusion of Planned Parenthood creator Margaret Sanger resulted in disapproval being heard from some in the Arizona Legislature, and funding dried up. With the lone exception of María Urquides in 1994, there were no Hall of Fame inductees for over a decade. Inductions finally resumed in 2002, when the Hall of Fame has only inducted new honorees every two years. The award returned to being annual in 2018.
Irene Esther Ryan was an American geologist, aviator, and legislator during Alaska's history as both a United States territory and as a U.S. state. She was a member of the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives and of the Alaska State Senate. She was instrumental in the creation of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which helped insure state revenue from oil and gas exploration done by outside entities.
Ruth Martin Jefford was an air taxi pilot in the U.S. state of Alaska and the first woman licensed to be a flight instructor out of Merrill Field. Jefford was a violinist who became a co-founder of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. During World War II, she entertained at the United Service Organizations in Alaska and transported medical supplies for the Red Cross Motor Corp. She was the first woman in Alaska to receive the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.
Evangeline Atwood (1906–1987) was an American historian, activist, and philanthropist. She was the co-founder of numerous organizations in Alaska, including the Alaska Statehood Association, the Anchorage League of Voters, the Alaska World Affairs Council, Parent-Teacher Council of Anchorage, and the Cook Inlet Historical Society. She was awarded Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society in 1975. In 2009, she was named to the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame. Her husband was Robert Atwood and was the co-owner, alongside him, of the Anchorage Times.
Helen Marie Fischer was an American politician and activist. She fought for Alaska Statehood and women's rights. A Democrat, she served in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives in 1957–1959 and then the Alaska House of Representatives 1959–1961 and 1971–1975 before and after Alaska became a state. In 2009, she was inaugurated into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame.
Lucy Frey (Lucille Pauline Frey) (August 1, 1932 – January 25, 2020) was an American feminist and gay rights activist and educator. She has been called "a founder of Alaska's lesbian community." In addition, Lucy Frey was a businesswoman and a social studies teacher at Clark Junior High School, where she also developed the curriculum for the students.
A kuspuk is a hooded overshirt with a large front pocket commonly worn among Alaska Natives. Kuspuks are tunic-length, falling anywhere from below the hips to below the knees. The bottom portion of kuspuks worn by women may be gathered and akin to a skirt. Kuspuks tend to be pullover garments, though some have zippers.
Alice E. Brown was a member of the Kenaitze Tribe of Dena'ina peoples, who worked for Native Alaskan rights. She was involved in defending the rights of Alaska Natives and disenfranchised groups in Alaska. She was the only woman to serve on the original Alaska Federation of Natives' Board of Directors and pressed for passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Brown was posthumously inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.
Arne Beltz was an American nurse best known for her work in public health. The Arne Beltz Building, which houses the Anchorage, Alaska Department of Health and Human Services, was named in her honor in 1990. In 2013, Beltz was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame.
Lois Colleen Maddox better known as Connie Boochever was a performer, director and producer of community theater and lifelong patron and advocate for the arts.
Jane Ruth Angvik is a politician and community organizer in Alaska. She served on the Anchorage Charter Commission and the Anchorage Assembly. Angvik was the Director of Lands in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development. She is a member of the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame.
The Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) is an international honor society. Its purpose is to honor the accomplishments of women divers, and their contributions to various fields of underwater diving. Full membership is restricted to nominees who have been found to meet the WDHOF's criteria, which include being an underwater diver and having contributed to diving in ways recognised as being significant.
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