Maps of parts of Baffin Island collected by Franz Boas
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 169270

USNM Accession 29060
label: Publication Note
content: Some of the maps were reproduced in:

Boas, Franz. Baffin-Land: Geographische Ergebnisse einer in den Jahren 1883 und 1884 ausgeführten Forschungsreise. Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1885.
name: label: Creator
content: Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
place: label: Place
content: Baffin Island (Nunavut)
label: Place
content: Arctic regions
label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Creator
content: Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
culture: label: Culture
content: Baffinland Inuit
setName: label: See more items in
content: Maps of parts of Baffin Island collected by Franz Boas
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Franz Boas (1858-1942) was a German-American anthropologist and pioneer of modern anthropological practice. He studied physics and geography at the universities at Heidelberg and Bonn before completing a doctoral program in physical geography at Kiel in 1881. After graduation, he joined an expedition of Baffin Island (1883-1884), which influenced his decision to focus on cultural tradition rather than biological and physical influences. In the summer of 1883 Boas traveled from Germany to Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, aboard the sailing vessel Germania whose main objective was to evacuate the personnel of the German station of the First International Polar Year from Kingua Fjord. Over the winter of 1883–1884 Boas confined himself to Cumberland Sound and in the spring and summer of 1884, he crossed the Cumberland Peninsula and visited numerous Inuit communities along the Davis Strait coast.

In 1885, Boas emigrated to the United States, where he took an editorial position with the journal Science and started what would become his most famous ethnographic project, working among the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) Indians, in 1886. Boas spent three years teaching at Clark University in Massachusetts, then took an appointment at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1892. Boas then moved to New York, where he joined the American Museum of Natural History (1895-1905) and began teaching at Columbia University in 1896. For 37 years, Boas established himself as an academic and mentored numerous future influential anthropologists, including Margaret Mead, Alfred Kroeber, Edward Sapir, and Zora Neale Hurston. He also served as one of the founders of both the American Anthropological Association and the International Journal of American Linguistics.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 34 Items (graphite, ink, and photomechanical; laminated)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1883-1884
container: label: Container
content: Folder 169270
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: The collection was donated by Franz Boas to the Bureau of American Ethnology on February 25, 1895, and subsequently transferred to the United States National Museum (USNM) through O. T. Mason on March 8, 1895 (USNM Accession Number 29,060).  It was transferred from the object collections of the Department of Anthropology to the National Anthropological Archives in September 1970.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS169270
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Maps
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The items in the collection were numbered 1-32 when cataloged by the United States National Museum (USNM).  This order has been maintained when possible.  Several numbers are now missing from the series, and a few items do not have numbers.  Unnumbered items appear at the end of the collection.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was reprocessed in 2023. The archivist replaced the titles previously assigned to the items wih Boas' titles and captions when possible. Untitled items were assigned titles in square brackets []. The drawings were arranged in USNM number order.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Maps
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of thirty-four (34) items, including thirty-two (32) maps of the Baffin Island coast drawn by unidentified Inuit informants and annotated by Franz Boas; and two (2) numbered lists of place names by Boas.  Most of the maps are not identified as to the precise area they represent except by Inuit place names. Other notes on the maps include a short text in an Inuit language and some notes in German and English; most of these notes are illegible because Boas used a shorthand system of his own in writing many of them.  Moreover, his handwriting is very difficult to read even when not abbreviated.  Many of the maps consist of two or more sheets of paper that were glued together and contain notes and drawings on both sides.  

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.