Race cachet letter of Balto & Togo, 1999
date: label: date made
content: 1999
name: label: artist
content: Van Zyle, Jona
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This letter from the race cachet explains the history of Togo and Balto, the two famous lead dogs from the 1925 Serum Run. The donor, Jona Van Zyle, created this cachet for the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. This was carried over the original Serum Run route by Colonel Norman Vaughan and his group of mushers as an educational and recreational trip to Nome. This cachet pays homage to the early history of the original purpose of the sled dog which was to provide mail and supplies for early settlers and is carried by each musher during the race.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The ‘Serum Run’ refers to the outbreak of diphtheria which hit Nome in 1925. The outbreak began just as the harbor at Nome was frozen over for the winter and while air travel was becoming more widespread in the Alaskan wilderness, the only plane available at the time had a frozen engine and was unable to fly. The Alaska Railroad was used to bring the needed anti-diphtheria serum north from Anchorage to Nenana; it traveled the last 700 miles to Nome through a chain of twenty sled dog teams in just over five days. This relay followed the old mail route along the Iditarod Trail. The sled dog teams included Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo who traveled the longest leg of the relay handing off the serum to musher Gunner Kaasen and his lead dog Balto. It was Kaasen and Balto who arrived in Nome and delivered the much needed serum catapulting Balto into the history books as the most famous sled dog of all time.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Jon and Jona Van Zyle are both artists who live outside of Anchorage and have raised sled dogs for many years. Jon has been a supporter of the Iditarod since it beginnings and ran the race in 1976. Jon produced the first official poster for the Iditarod in 1977 which was such a huge success he was voted official artist of the Iditarod in 1979, a position he holds to this day. Jona also contributes her artistic talents to the race by designing logos for the Junior Iditarod and race cachets for the Iditarod and personal cachets for various mushers.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: Dog Sled racing
label: web subject
content: Mail
label: level of sport
content: Professional
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sled Dog Racing
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0116.15.2
label: accession number
content: 2014.0116
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0116.16.2
objectType: label: Object Name
content: race cachet letter, sled dog racing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 8 1/2 in; 27.94 cm x 21.59 cm