Woman's Sewing Bag
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Dec 1882
name: label: Collector
content: W.J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: IDENTIFIED BY FRAN REED AS MADE OF GUT, 2/1999 Illus. Fig. 29, p. 40 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 as "Woman's sewing bag, Ekgwiutaq. Intestines of bears, seals, sea lions, and whales were used to make waterproof jackets and bags. To prepare intestines for sewing, they were cleaned, inflated, and hung out to dry. This nineteenth century intestine bag is trimmed with sea otter fur and bird down. Colored yarn and hair are tucked into the seams. The bag was made to hold scraps of fur and other sewing materials."
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=159 , retrieved 8-30-2012: Sewing bag, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. ekgwiutaq "hunting bag, sewing bag" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect)
label: Notes
content: 1989 analysis of fur by Bonnie Farmer, NMNH Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology: Enhydra lutris / Sea Otter: Forms soft brown borders. Unknown: Long pale fibers sewn into horizontal seams. Bob Mann, NMNH Dept. of Anthropology, examined a sample; human hair was eliminated as a possibility.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Feb 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Katmai, Alaska Peninsula, 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: 012209
label: USNM Number
content: E72495-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bag
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 30 cm