Snow Goggles
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Sep 1876
name: label: Collector
content: Lucien M. Turner
label: Donor Name
content: Lucien M. Turner
notes: label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 93 p. 83 in Chaussonnet, Valerie. 1995. Crossroads Alaska: native cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Washington, D.C.: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=54 , retrieved 11-25-2021; see web page for additional information: Snow goggles, Inupiaq. Ultraviolet light reflected from snow and ice can burn the retinas of the eyes, causing severe pain and temporary blindness. Snow blindness is a threat particularly during the late northern spring, when the sun's rays grow stronger and more direct. Goggles with narrow slits reduce incoming light but still provide a wide range of vision. As the amount of sunshine increased in late winter and spring, people wore goggles to protect their eyes from snow blindness. This painful, debilitating condition occurs when strong ultraviolet light reflects from snow and ice, burning the retinas. Snow goggles have narrow slits that reduce the amount of glare that can reach the wearer's eyes, while still providing a wide range of vision. Snow goggles came in a number of shapes and styles. Examples from the Norton Sound area-collected by Edward Nelson in the late 1800s-have two long, narrow slits for the eyes, a visor-like ridge above the eye slits (as on this pair) that gave additional shade, a notch for the nose, and a strap made of sealskin or braided sinew. Another Norton Sound type had separate eye pieces-somewhat oval, with narrow eye slits-connected by sinew string.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 76A00100
label: USNM Number
content: E24340-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Goggles
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 15 cm