Kayak
date: label: Accession Date
content: 25 Oct 1889
label: Collection Date
content: 1889
name: label: Collector
content: Alaska Commercial Company
label: Donor Name
content: Alaska Commercial Company
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Former no. 160,175. Refer: Collins' MS. p. 750." Bow of kayak is marked with a B, and also with number 160175, which has been lined through, in addition to current catalogue number of 307251.
label: Notes
content: Kayak is described in U.S. National Museum Bulletin 127, p. 208, under old number 160175: "Kaiak. Built and used by the Eskimos at St. Michael, in northern Alaska. A sharp-ended, keelless, skin canoe, made of sealskin, sewed together with sinews and stretched over a wooden frame while the skins are green, so that when dry the covering becomes tight and rigid; the sealskin is kept well oiled to exclude the water. The kaiak has a long, sharp bow, curved up at the end like the front of a sled runner; bottom nearly flat and narrow, tapering to a point at each end; sides strongly flaring; long, sharp stern; nearly vertical at end; deck with high straight central ridge. slopiing steeply to each side, and terminating at each end in projection for hand grasp, the forward one lapping over the end of the bow and forming a sort of hole; large circular manhole near longitudinal center, with elevated rim, and nearly as wide as the kaiak: frame of canoe lashed together with strips of sealskin. Dimensions of kaiak - Length, 17 feet; beam, 2 feet 4 inches; depth amidships, 14 1/8 inches; diameter of manhole, fore and aft, 22 1/4 inches, transversely, 24 inches."
label: Notes
content: Kayak spray skirt that goes with this kayak is formerly ET1685-0. Description on old T number card for this object: "Very wide tube of gutskin, made of 3 widths of gut strips pieced together. Casing on each end, with drawstrings. Wood toggle. Used to enclose opening of the kayak, to shut out water. Brown and red skin strips in seams, remnants of yarn tufts (red and blue) in seams as well. 75 cm long, 42 cm. wide." The spray skirt has number 160175 written on it on the inside in several places, which is an old museum number once used for kayak 307251.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 182, p. 198, and described p. 200, under old number 160175 in Adney, Tappan, and Howard Irving Chapelle. 1964. The bark canoes and skin boats of North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution (U.S. National Museum Bulletin 230).
label: Notes
content: Kayak is illustrated and described in detail in Golden, Harvey. 2015. Kayaks of Alaska. Portland, OR: White House Grocery Press: Plate 38, p. 215; p. 227; Figure 568f, p. 421. Golden identifies kayak as Unaligmiut.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: St. Michael, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik, Unaligmiut (Unalirmiut)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 022485
label: USNM Number
content: E307251-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Kayak / Kayak Spray Skirt
physicalDescription: label: Height - Kayak
content: 41 cm
label: Depth - Kayak
content: 66 cm
label: Width - Kayak
content: 523 cm
label: Length - Kayak Spray Skirt
content: 75 cm
label: Width - Kayak Spray Skirt
content: 42 cm