“Fresh from the Can: Salmon, Pure Food Laws, and Perceptions of Nature in the Early 20th-Century Alaska Fishing Industry” presented by Ross Coen, University of Alaska Fairbanks professor

Friday Night Insight at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, 7-8 pm

Histories of the early 20th-century Alaska salmon canning industry have shown that technological innovation, low-cost labor, and lax regulation led to record fish harvests and profits. Few, however, focus on the salmon itself actually inside the can. This presentation looks beyond the four walls of the cannery and examines how the industry perceived salmon, first as a living creature in the ocean and then as a commercial product whose quality, taste, and appearance on the consumer’s dinner table became a priority. In marketing canned salmon as pure, wholesome, and even “fresh,” the packers downplayed industrialism and marketed nature.