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Alaska State Museum July 2025 Artifact of the Month is the Display Copy of the Alaska State Constitution

The Alaska State Museum July artifact of the month is the display copy of the Alaska State Constitution (III-O-311). In 1956, the U.S. Government Printing Office’s retired Chief Calligrapher, Walter W. Farris, hand printed this copy on parchment and then added the separately collected signature page. The official signed copy is typeset and can be found in the collection of the Alaska State Archives.

The creation of the Alaska State Constitution was one of many steps over several decades that led to Alaska becoming a state. In the winter of 1955-1956, 55 elected delegates from across the Territory of Alaska gathered for the Alaska Constitutional Convention at the University of Alaska in College, AK (now known as University of Alaska Fairbanks) to draft a constitution and demonstrate to Congress that Alaska was ready for statehood. Ted Stevens, a young attorney who would go on to became an influential U.S. Senator for Alaska, became involved in the statehood issue and contributed to the language of the constitution, with the goal of convincing President Dwight D. Eisenhower to sign Alaska into the Union.

In the Congressional Quarterly Almanac of 1958, the following arguments were made for and against statehood for Alaska and Hawaii:

CONTIGUITY – The territories do not touch the United States. 

• Opponents: They are too far distant to be integrated into the Union.
• Proponents: Other states, including California, were admitted to the Union while separated from other states by long distances. The territories are closer to Washington, D.C. in travel and communication time than Boston and New York were when the U.S. was established.

POPULATION – Alaska's estimated population was 206,000, while its territory was one-fifth the size of the U.S. and more than twice as large as Texas. 

• Opponents: Alaska's population is too small to support statehood.
• Proponents: Twenty-three states had smaller populations when admitted; Nevada's 1950 population was only 160,083.

REPRESENTATION – Alaska and Hawaii would each get two Senators; Hawaii would get two Representatives and Alaska would have one.

• Opponents: This congressional apportionment would dilute the representation of more populous states.
• Proponents: The U.S. Constitution intentionally provides for equal senate representation for all states, regardless of population.

ECONOMY

• Opponents: Alaska, especially, would be too weak economically to support statehood and would require vast amounts of federal aid.
• Proponents: Both territories have great economic potential that could be utilized fully under their own administrations.

DEFENSE

• Opponents: The strategic situation of Alaska and alleged Communist influence in Hawaii must be resolved before statehood.
• Proponents: Alaska would strengthen the defense of North America against aggression from Asia.

Despite the opposition, Alaska voters ratified the constitution in 1956, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law in 1958. He emphasized the strategic importance of Alaska during the Cold War and the close proximity of the Soviet Union. The act would go into effect when Alaska became a state in January 1959.

The Alaska Constitution has been cited as a model internationally.

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