Native Alaskan drawings collected by the United States Bureau of Education
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: USNM Accession 51115

NAA MS 260447
label: Variant Title
content: Collection previously titled "Scenes of native life including hunting, sledding, games, animal husbandry and ceremonies."
label: Publication Note
content: Almost all drawings were published in:

George Phebus, Jr., Alaskan Eskimo Life in the 1890s as Sketched by Native Artists, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972.
name: label: Artist
content: Ivanoff, Stephan
label: Artist
content: Unknown
label: Collector
content: United States. Bureau of Education
place: label: Place
content: Alaska
label: Place
content: North America
label: Place
content: Arctic regions
topic: label: Topic
content: Hunting
label: Topic
content: Sleds
label: Topic
content: Rites and ceremonies
label: Topic
content: Games
creator: label: Artist
content: Ivanoff, Stephan
label: Artist
content: Unknown
label: Collector
content: United States. Bureau of Education
culture: label: Culture
content: Alaskan Eskimo
label: Culture
content: Iñupiaq
label: Culture
content: Yup'ik (Yupik)
label: Culture
content: Saami (Lapp)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Native Alaskan drawings collected by the United States Bureau of Education
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Stephan Ivanoff was born in Unalakleet, Alaska to a Yu'pik mother and Russian father.  He filled various roles as a translator, deacon of the Swedish Covenant Church, and teaching assistant at the Swedish Evangelical Mission School at Unalakleet around the turn of the twentieth century.
label: Historical Note
content: The Bureau of Education, also known as the Office of Education or Department of Education, was a unit within the United States Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 124 Drawings (visual works) (graphite, ink, crayon, and watercolor)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1890-1900
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: The drawings were collected by the United States Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior circa 1890-1900.  The drawings were held in the museum collection of the Bureau of Education and were exhibited at various expositions before 1910.  In 1910, the Bureau of Education museum was dissolved, and its collections were transferred to the United States National Museum (USNM Accession 51115 and 51116).  The drawings were cataloged (USNM Catalog 260447), but subsequently misplaced.  They were found in summer 1967 in Smithsonian Institution Department of Anthropology storage. They were transferred from the object collections of the Department of Anthropology to the National Anthropological Archives by George Phebus, Processing Lab, February, 1972.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS260447
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings (visual works)
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Drawings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The drawings are arranged in order by inventory number.  The inventory numbers roughly following the thematic organization in Alaskan Eskimo Life in the 1890s as Sketched by Native Artists.  Some drawings have been rehoused in conservation mounts and are stored out of sequence.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was reprocessed in 2023. The archivist replaced the titles previously assigned to the drawings with the titles and/or captions provided on the drawings. Untitled drawings wee assigned titles in square brackets [].
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of 124 drawings made by Native Alaskan artists.  A few of the drawings are signed by the artist, Stephan Ivanoff; the majority of the drawings are unsigned and the artists have not been identified.  The drawings depict scenes of Native Alaskan life, including hunting and fishing, reindeer herding, trade, sledding, games, and ceremonies. The drawings were collected by the United States Bureau of Education for exhibition purposes.


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.