Museum’s 1867 Alaska purchase painting on loan to 49th state

AUBURN, N.Y. – A New York museum’s historical painting depicting the U.S. purchase of Alaska has been loaned to the 49th state for commemorations marking the event’s 150th anniversary.

Emanuel Leutze (LYT’-suh), a 19th-century German-American artist whose work includes “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” painted a scene that depicts the signing of the 1867 treaty that purchased Alaska from Russia.

Among those depicted in the painting is then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, of Auburn in central New York. “Signing of the Alaska Treaty” is among the most prized artwork in the collection at Auburn’s Seward House Museum.

Museum officials say the painting was recently flown to Alaska, where it will be displayed this year at the Anchorage Museum, the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, and the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.