Kayak
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Oct 1994
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. James A. Ford
label: Collector
content: Sgt. Stanley Morgan
label: Donor Name
content: National Museum of Natural History
notes: label: Notes
content: FOUND IN "SCHOOL COLLECTION" STORAGE AREA.PROPOSED FOR ACCESSIONING BY WILLIAM FITZHUGH, CURATOR, 7 OCT 1994 ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT IT MIGHT BE SUBSEQUENTLY IDENTIFIED. Single cockpit kayak; wood frame and canvas cover. Paddle found with this kayak is # E428708-0.
label: Notes
content: The information below was provided by Harvey Golden, 2013, who indicates this kayak may have belonged to James A. Ford: John Heath saw this kayak at the NMNH in 1963, and in his field notes he referred to this kayak as "James Ford's kayak." James Ford authored the Eskimo Prehistory in the Vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska (1959). In the volume's introduction, Ford mentioned having traveled to Point Barrow vicinity by ship in the summer of 1931, returning south the following summer. Ford also traveled the Alaskan coast between Cape Prince of Wales and Point Barrow in the summer of 1936, and he summered at Barrow in 1953, arriving and departing by air (1959:13,15-16). Ford makes no mention of 'his' kayak (if it is indeed his), as it wasn't directly pertinent to his topic of study. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History holds the bulk of the material Ford excavated at Point Barrow. If Ford collected this kayak, it could have been either at Point Barrow, Kotzebue, or anywhere in between, as he traveled this coast on small boats in 1936.
label: Notes
content: An alternate possible provenance for this kayak is that it could be Catalogue No. E364758, from loan accession 122301, Stanley Morgan collection, which was identified as a canvas covered kayak from the Barrow area, i.e. North Alaskan Inupiaq. The Morgan collection came to the museum in 1932 through James A. Ford.
label: Notes
content: Kayak is illustrated and described in detail in Golden, Harvey. 2015. Kayaks of Alaska. Portland, OR: White House Grocery Press: Plate 74, p. 329; pp. 346 - 347. Attributed there as a North Alaskan Inupiaq kayak.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: North Alaska (not certain), Alaska (not certain), United States (not certain), North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 400221
label: USNM Number
content: E428707-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Kayak