Traineau Or Sled
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Dec 1866
name: label: Donor Name
content: Roderick R. MacFarlane
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN USNM REPT 1894, FIG. 258, P. 571. LOANED TO NPG, JAN 6, 1970 (FRAGMENT ONLY). RETURNED: 6/23/70." Description of this sled in US National Museum Annual Report for 1894, pp. 570-572: "The parts of sled (No. 2676) to be now studied are the runners, the shoeing, the crossbars, the handle, and the lashing. (Fig. 258.) The runners (as in the case of most from this region) are made of oak planks less than 1 inch thick, 4 inches high, and 2 feet 4 inches long, taken from whaleships. Evidently these runners have formed part of a sled prior to their use in this one, for there are a great many holes bored along the top aud bottom which now have no function. Each runner is shod with strips of narwhal ivory. Holes are bored through the runners three-fourths of an inch from the bottom, and the wood is cut away between these holes and the bottom so that the rawhide lashing may be countersunk. The shoeing is fastened to the runners in the following manner : Holes half an inch apart are bored diagonally through the ivory so as to meet in a single countersunk cavity below. At every point of attachment there are two sets of these holes, one near the outer margin of the shoeing, tho other near the inner margin. The rawhide lashing passes through the runner, then down through one of the diagonal holes in the shoeing and up through the other, then through the runner to the inside, and down, and up through the diagonal bores in the shoeing back to the outside, as indicated in the drawing. The only exception to this method of attachment is where two ends of the shoeing come together. In that case the bore passes down through the shoeing a quarter of an inch from the end, and a slight gutter is cut from this perforation to the end of the ivory. When two pieces are bored and guttered in this way, a rawhide line passes down through one along to the other in the countersink; the lashing then passes up through the hole in the runner to the inside, and down through the other two perforations, backward and forward, until they are firmly sewed on and the rawhide is protected at every point. When the process is understood, the ingenuity of the Eskimo will appear, the object being at every step to secure the shoeing permanently in place and yet to protect the rawhide line from abrasion by the ice. There are five crossbars to the sled on which the load rests. They are made of the roughest kind of pine and oak from old box covers or barrels, and the front one has been mended by a splicing of bone, as there is no bracing whatever in the Greenland sled beneath. The lashing of these cross bars is very complete and efficient; holes are bored through the runners l j inches from the top, just below where the crossbar is to be attached. The crossbars are cut away at the ends, so as to form a notch like a dovetail. A stout rawhide line passes over this notch and down through the runner to the inside, up over the notch and down to the hole in the runner, and back to the outside. These excursions through the runner and over the end of the crosspiece continue until the holes are filled up; the strands of the lashing are seized firmly by several turns of the rawhide line. In this particular case a half turn of the lashing passes also through old holes that were used when these runners were part of another sled. The handles are very much like those of a plow. They fit on the top of the runner at the hind end, and are held on by a rawhide line passing through a series of holes bored in the runner and in the handle. In addition to this, a rawhide line passes from a hole in the handle 2 inches above the runner to another hole in the heel of the sled. Two inches below its upper margin a rawhide line is rove four times through and fastened off by a half hitch; this part of the work is very neatly done. The upper part of the handles are joined together by a cross piece, which is held on by a diagonal lashing. The knots on this sled are very interesting, consisting of splices or whip knots (a very common device in all rawhide lines), overhand knots, and a series of half turns. After all, the most efficient knot is that shown in the attachment of the crosspieces to the runners, consisting of a seizing fastened off with a single half hitch; the side strand and fore and aft strand are taken up very effectively by this method of lashing."
label: Notes
content: The two additional pieces of sled runner stored with this sled may not actually belong with it. They more resemble Eastern ones rather than Western. The larger piece, # 4 of 4, for example, resembles the runners on sleds E169044 or E383373, which are from Greenland.
label: Notes
content: This object is listed, but not described or analyzed, in Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/173 , retrieved 1-17-2020.
label: Notes
content: Small sled E2676 and what appears to be larger sled E10377 are visible on top of cabinets towards the right in a photograph taken at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia. Interior view, Department of the Interior exhibits in the United States Government Building, featuring archeological and anthropological artifacts, prepared by Bureau of Indian Affairs and Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 64, Folder 01, Image No. SIA_000095_B64_F01_010. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_400408 .
label: Record Last Modified
content: 27 Jul 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 4
place: label: Place
content: Northwest Territories, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit, Inuvialuk (Inuvialuit)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00090
label: USNM Number
content: E2676-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sled