Net Gauge
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Feb 1882
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "48931-9. 48932-3-4-5-BONE." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "MESH SPACER.---CARVED FROM ANTLER. HANDLE WRAPPED WITH SPRUCE ROOT. SPACER MUCH DISCOLORED, AND SHAPED LIKE THE BLADE OF A RAZOR. LENGTH, 9 3/4 INCHES. ESKIMO, SABOTNISKY, YUKON RIVER, ALASKA. 48,935. COLLECTED BY E. W. NELSON."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Listed on page 34 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Western Eskimo".
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=112 , retrieved 10-24-2021; see web page for additional information: Net gauge, Yup'ik. Making a net to catch fish or sea mammals requires precise measurement of the openings, or mesh. This tool shows the size needed for king salmon, one of the largest fish. It is made of caribou bone with a wrapping of split spruce root around the handle. Today, Yup'ik fishermen use commercial nets rather homemade ones. A wide variety of fish-from huge king salmon to small but abundant herring-are a critical part of the subsistence diet in southwestern Alaska, both now and in the past. Fish are harvested in large quantities, dried, and stored for consumption throughout the winter. This bone tool with handle wrapped in spruce root is a measuring device for making a king salmon net. Traditional nets were woven from twisted willow bark, nettle fibers, sinew, or bearded seal thong. They were placed in rivers and along the coast from early summer through fall to catch herring, whitefish, and all five species of salmon-king, sockeye, pink, chum, and dog. Nets were suspended from wooden floats and held down by sinkers of bone, ivory or stone, and could be set from shore or drifted downriver using a kayak. Handheld dip nets were for catching whitefish, smelt, lampreys and other species. Large nets made of thong were also effective for capturing seals, both in open water during spring and fall and under the sea ice in winter. They were also used for walrus and beluga. The size of the mesh is different for each species of fish or sea mammal, since it must be just large enough for the animal's head. For a net maker, a gauge like this provides a handy way to measure how far apart to tie each knot. However, all such measurements can also be expressed in terms of the human body. For example, the cords of a king salmon net are spaced to equal the distance from the tip of the middle finger to the center of the palm. The blade of this gauge approximates this same distance, taking into account the wide variation in human hand size.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sabotnisky, Yukon River, Lower, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 82A00003
label: USNM Number
content: E48935-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Net Gauge
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 24.76 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 24.5 cm