Hat
date: label: Accession Date
content: 8 Feb 1884
name: label: Collector
content: William J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 164, p. 169 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.Identified there: "Tall peaked hats were worn by shamans and whalers on the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island. The red-painted front panel of this hat is embroidered with caribou hair, yarn, and strips of thin painted skin (probably esophagus), and further embellished with puffs of ermine and sea otter fur. The side panels are made of ground squirrel fur. Long strands of unidentified white hair and red yarn are worked into the seams. Iridescent cormorant breast feathers can be seen on top of the hat."
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 http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=197, retrieved 9-6-2012: Hat, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag allugaq, all'ugaq "skin hat" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect)
label: Notes
content: Reference: Crowell, Aron. “Postcontact Koniag Ceremonialism on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula: Evidence from the Fisher Collection.” Arctic Anthropology 29, no. 1 (1992): 18–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316240. Copy of this article is attached to accession record.
label: Notes
content: 1989 analysis of fur by Bonnie Farmer, NMNH Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology: Mustella erminea / Shorttail Weasel/Ermine: Forms a small thin band of soft, short, whitish hair encircling lower side above rim; also white, greyish and yellowish tufts distributed at various points, including top center. Enhydra lutris / Sea Otter: Found as tufts of rich, dark brown fur attached in rows and single patches; also forms large tufts at top center. Rangifer tarandus / Caribou/Reindeer: Used for the white stitching throughout; also, brown patch of hair found inside rim. Phoca vitulina / Harbor (Common) Seal: Narrow edge of pale and blackish short, stiff hairs. Spermophilus parryi / Arctic Ground Squirrel: Forms large patches of fur, spotted with white, on sides; also two large patches inside hat. Unknown/Tentative Identification: Long blond strands sewn into seams, structurally similar to Ursus arctos (Grizzly/Alaskan Brown Bear); examined by Bob Mann, NMNH Dept. of Anthropology, who eliminated human hair as a possibility.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Feb 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sutwik Island / Sutkum, Alaska Peninsula (off of), Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Koniag
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 014024
label: USNM Number
content: E90446-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Hat
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 26 cm