Dugout Canoe
date: label: Accession Date
content: 14 Apr 1894
label: Collection Date
content: 1893
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Walter J. Hoffman
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Illus. Hndbk. of N. Amer. Indians, Vol. 15, Northeast, Fig. 3, pg. 710. Refer: Collins'. MS. p. 878. USNM. Bull. 127, p. 217-8." Card identifies this as old Division of Engineering number 76313, and also lists another old number of 35489.
label: Notes
content: From U.S. National Museum Bulletin 127, pp. 217-218 listing on this canoe, under old Division of Engineering number 76313: "Dugout canoe. Used by the Menomoni Indians of Wisconsin. An open, sharp-ended, round bottom, keelless dugout canoe, characteristic of the western Lake region. Dimensions of canoe. - Length, 19 feet 9 inches: beam. 21 1/2 inches; depth, 12 inches. Collected by W. J. Hoffman."
label: Notes
content: The former number 76313 is written on canoe in black paint, and the letters IP are written in white paint on the canoe's surface near the bow. A chunk of wood is missing from the bow. A large, naturally occurring burl, or growth that has deformed the wood's grain, appears in the canoe wood amidships (middle section of the canoe).
label: Notes
content: Wood sampling was carried out for speciation and radiocarbon dating by Dr. Sissel Schroeder (University of Wisconsin) in December 2022. From her research, the wood was identified as "white pine (Pinus strobus) and the radiocarbon date for the dugout came back as 205+/-15 BP, which calibrates (with probabilities) to AD 1653-1684 (30.3%), AD 1736-1755 (10.1%), AD 1760-1803 (50.1%), AD 1936+ (4.9%). Given what is known historically about the dugout, we think the most likely date for the tree (and by inference it's manufacture) is the late 1700s-early 1800s" (email communication June 20, 2025).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Aug 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Keshena, Menominee County, Wisconsin, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Menominee (Mamaceqtaw)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 028062
label: USNM Number
content: E307246-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Canoe
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 46 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 56 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 584 cm