Data rescue and curation of modern and historic collections of Alaskan sea otter and walrus specimens at the UA Museum, from 1945 to 2022

Specimen data are recorded at the site of collection by the collectors and in the lab by museum technicians. This dataset includes specimen data and metadata from those specimens and specimen parts newly processed into the UA Museum Mammal Collection as part of this NPRB project 1913. This project has produced 5,752 professionally curated marine mammal specimens that were previously inaccessible to researchers. This includes 3,280 new walrus, 1,427 new sea otter, and 853 new seal specimens. Those specimens (tissues, skulls, and skeletons) and their data are now publicly discoverable and available for loan to qualified researchers through our specimen loan program (https://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/mammal/policies/). The file is in CSV format but all data can be accessed in our online database Arctos at this link, https://arctos.database.museum/archive/nprb1913uammammals, and is now discoverable in museum data aggregator databases such as Vertnet (http://vertnet.org/) and GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/). Details on each specimen include, but are not limited to, scientific name, state of speciment, collection date, collection location, and specimen parts available.