Kayak
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1882 to 1885
name: label: Collector
content: U.S. Fish Commission
label: Collector
content: Lucien M. Turner
label: Donor Name
content: Accession Number Unknown
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "This card made Nov. 1947. [Kayak was] Transferred [to Ethnology Division] from Div. Engineering Oct. 23, 1899. The original cat. was evidently wrong in calling this Mackenzie R. locality. [Currently identified instead as Upernavik, Greenland or Northern Labrador type.] 5/7/63 This type is distinctive from this area, according to studies of Howard Chapelle, Kaj Birket Smith, Philip Heath."
label: Notes
content: See Collins boat MS. pp. 815-816. This kayak is identified there and on catalogue card as collected in 1885. No accession number or collector/donor name is listed. It was originally listed in the ledger book and on the catalogue card as Mackenzie River but that was changed later on the catalogue card to Upernavik, Greenland or Northern Labrador. Kayak is illustrated in Fig. 191, p. 203, and described on p. 202-204 of 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). Identified there as collected by the U.S. Fish Commission in 1885 and of the type from Upernavik, Greenland or Northern Labrador. If this collector is correct (the source of this information is unknown), then one possible accession number may be 28022? Speculatively also, another alternate provenance would be that this could be Greenland kayak # E26618, which has not been located, and is supposed to be 18 feet long and 22 inches wide, which appears to fit the measurements for E160325. Also speculatively, another alternative provenance may be that the kayak is from Lucien M. Turner 1884 Accession No. 15388 (catalogued in 1885), which was supposed to include a kayak (“Eskimo khiak + appurtenances”), according to Turner shipping list in the accession record, though no kayak has been located. If this is the case, it would be from Canada, presumably Labrador or vicinity, and collected 1882 - 1884.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Upernavik (not certain), North Labrador (not certain) / Mackenzie River (not certain), Kitaa (not certain) / Newfoundland and Labrador (not certain) / Northwest Territories (not certain), Greenland (not certain) / Canada (not certain), North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo
label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit (?)
label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit, Greenland Inuit (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 000000
label: USNM Number
content: E160325-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Kayak
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 28 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 61 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 559 cm