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The new space in the downtown Sealaska Plaza is slated to open this summer, institute spokeswoman Kathy Dye said. It is meant in part to allow researchers access to the growing number of collections.

The organization also announced Monday it received 150 black-and-white photographs from a local architectural firm documenting work on a tribal house and totem poles in Wrangell and Sitka.

The Dec. 31 donation came on the heels of another one by Ronald Haffner, who gave four ancient stone objects earlier in the month.

"People are starting to see that we have the professional capability to care for these items," President Rosita Worl said. "An increasing number of people are contacting us to donate."

The collection started when a former attorney donated land-claims files. Other items were added without much organization to their preservation until former staffer Don Bremner, who Worl described as a man with a passion for Native history, pointed out that while elders took great care of oral traditions and passed them down, the institute at that time didn't.

"He threw this stack of papers connected with rusty old paper clips down on the table and said, 'This is the job we're doing today,'" Worl said.

A staff position was created shortly afterward to manage the collection. That was about seven years ago, and four years ago, the institute hired a professional archivist.

Current archivist Zachary Jones will inspect the newest donation, and plans to exhibit the 8-by-10-inch photographs are being discussed.

The pictures from the 1930s were compiled by the late Linn A. Forrest Sr., an architect who oversaw restoration projects through the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program established in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The photographs primarily depict work on the Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell and restoration of totem poles at the Sitka National Historic Park in 1939.

Forrest later founded MRV Architects, and the collection eventually was passed to the current owners of the corporation, said architect Paul Voelckers, a partner at the company.

Worl said several former Wrangell residents who now live in Juneau have been contacted to see if some of the people in the pictures can be identified.

• Contact Kim Marquis at 523-2279 or kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.