Tobacco Box
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Nov 1883
name: label: Collector
content: Lt P.H. Ray
label: Collector
content: John Murdoch
label: Collector
content: Middleton Smith
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Signal Service
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "SLEEPING DEER [sic]. ILLUS. IN BAE 9TH AR, FIG. 334, P. 325. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG.320, P.238. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads catalogue caption identifies as a tobacco and snuff box, North Alaskan Eskimo: "... a beautifully rendered carving in antler of a foetal caribou, which held the owner's precious supply of tobacco or snuff." From May 2008 Conservation treatment report: "Murdoch [in B.A.E. 9th Annual Report] identifies the material as reindeer antler, and this is supported by an examination of the surface morphology, color and shape of the object. However, ASC AK Director, Aron Crowell (pers. comm. 5/2008) suggests that this container may be walrus jaw, a particularly hard and dense material."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
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=121 , retrieved 12-15-2021; see web page for additional information: Tobacco box, Inupiaq. Men crafted attractive small boxes to store tobacco, this one carved from bone in the image of a caribou fawn resting on the tundra. Both men and women used tobacco, which was smoked in pipes, chewed together with ash made from birch tree fungus, or snorted as a powder. Tobacco first came to Alaska through trade with Chukchi and Siberian Yupik peoples in Siberia. Before direct trade with Russian fur companies and American whaling vessels, peoples in northwest Alaska obtained Russian leaf tobacco from the Chukchi through exchange networks and trade fairs in Alaska and eastern Siberia. When visiting villages in the Bering Strait region in the 1880s, Edward Nelson observed local custom by giving headmen gifts of tobacco. He also traded tobacco and other items such as needles and buttons for Native-made objects. Nelson observed that a man's smoking implements-pipe, flint and steel, tinder and pouch of tobacco-and snuff implements-snuff box and tube-were usually placed in his coffin. Both men and women used snuff or chewing tobacco, while most smokers were men. To make chewing tobacco, the leaves were chopped, mixed with ash, and kneaded into balls-also called quids or plugs-that were kept in small boxes. The ash was made by burning birch tree fungus, obtained through trade with Athabascan peoples of interior Alaska. Tar scraped from the inside of pipe stems was also added. Chewing tobacco was held in the cheek and the juice swallowed. To make snuff, tobacco leaves were cut, dried, and ground into powder in a pestle and wooden mortar. The powder was sifted and kept in a small box. Snuff was taken by inhaling the powder into the nose through a tube. Snuff tubes were usually hollow wing bones of geese or ducks, engraved with designs. Small amounts of snuff were sometimes carried in little seal-intestine pouches tied with sealskin string, usually with the snuff tube attached. Men made small boxes to store ash, quids, and snuff. Tobacco boxes came in a variety of shapes and were often decorated with engravings, animal and human figures, bone or ivory inlays, and beads.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Point Barrow, 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: 013712
label: USNM Number
content: E56512-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tobacco Box
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 15 cm