Kayak - Nunivak Island Type
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: "Accession papers: "Bidarka from Cape Vancouver and Nunivak Island, south from St. Michaels 250 miles, with one paddle, no spears or gear."
label: Notes
content: A single-hole, skin kayak, 15' long, 2'4" wide; hole amidships, 2'2" diameter; round bottom, flaring sides, high-ridged deck, projecting stern hand-piece; hand hole in bow, 6" in diameter, animal jaw on bow, long, slender four-legged animal painted on each side, tail at stern, head at bow, open mouth, projecting tongue. Illus. in BAE 18th AR, pt. 1; Pl. LXXIX-2; p. 220 [listed as number 160345]."
label: Notes
content: Illustrated Fig. 27, pp. 60-61 (under incorrect # 160345) in Fitzhugh, William W., Susan A. Kaplan, and Henry B. Collins. 1982. Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo. Washington, D.C.: Published for the National Museum of Natural History by the Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there: "This kayak, with its painting of the mythological monster known as palraiyuk [paalraayak], is typical of the Nunivak Island region. Made of seal skins sewn over a wooden frame, the kayak has an enlarged cockpit capable of carrying a passenger sitting back-to-back with the paddler. Bering Sea kayak forms vary from region to region, and within a region a hunter's kayak is given personal identification marks, here seen as colored stripes on the projecting stern piece."
label: Notes
content: FROM CONDITION REPORT FOR HALL 9 TAKEDOWN (C. VALENTOUR, 3/98): "ONE-MAN KAYAK MADE FROM WOODEN FRAME W/ SEALSKIN COVER. EXTERIOR OF BOTH SIDES PAINTED W/ MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURE, HEAD OF FIGURE FACING FRONT SIDE. 2 RAWHIDE LASHINGS ACROSS FRONT PORTION, 1 ACROSS THE BACK. 2 IVORY TOGGLES ON ONE OF THE 2 FRONT LASHINGS."
label: Notes
content: Photo and description in Fienup-Riordan, Ann. 2007. Yuungnaqpiallerput, The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival. Seattle: University Of Washington Press, p. 101
label: Notes
content: This kayak may be the one included on a shipping invoice dated June 23, 1947, filed in Accession 36096, recording the transfer of a number of boats from the Division of Engineering to the Division of Ethnology. The listing on the shipping invoice is for a Nunivak Island type kayak, accession number 22,485-D, with no catalogue number listed. The kayak currently called number E160415 has in the past been published as number 160345, but in the 1940s was determined to be 160415.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 180, p. 198, and described pp. 197-199, under number 160345, 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 28, p. 170; pp. 190 - 192; Figure 568e, p. 420; Color Plate VIII, # 3, after p. 274.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Nov 2018
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
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: E160415-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Kayak
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 458 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 72 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 44 cm