Fishing Canoe
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1890
label: Collection Date
content: 1889
name: label: Collector
content: Lt. U S N Timothy D. Bolles
label: Donor Name
content: U. S. Department of the Navy
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Originally had paddles with it. Refer: Collins' MS. p. 1359. U.S.N.M. Bull. 127, p. 285."
label: Notes
content: Canoe is described in U.S. National Museum Bulletin # 127, p. 285: "Samoan fishing canoe. A type of canoe used by the natives at Tutuila, Samoa, for bonita [sic, should be bonito] fishing. It is an open, sharp-ended, outrigged dugout [sic] canoe, with round bottom, one end [the stern] rising in a long easy curve from the bottom, the other sharp and hollowed at the extremity [the bow], so that it projects forward at top and lower corner; small balance log attached to two outriggers; no sail; two paddles. Dimensions of canoe. - Length, 23 feet 7 inches; width, 19 inches; depth, 16 inches; outriggers, outboard, 3 feet 8 inches; balance log, 13 feet 10 inches long, 4 inches diameter; paddles, 4 feet 4 inches long, 9 inches extreme width of blades. Collected by T. D. Bolles."
label: Notes
content: This canoe appears to be the same canoe shown in National Anthropological Archives photo NAA INV 05264600, DOE Oceania: West Polynesia: Samoa: NM 151640 05264600, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. This photo has the caption: "Non-Native Man in Outrigger Canoe (Bought by Lt T. Dix Bolles) and Holding Paddle on Lawn", and appears to have been taken on the Mall near the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building. This canoe also appears to the same canoe photographed at the same spot and the same time? as the one shown in a National Anthropological Archives photo: NAA INV 04924400, DOE Oceania: Amer Polynesia: Hawaii: School Children 04924400, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. This canoe is definitely of Samoan manufacture, per Dr. Adrienne Kaeppler, though the NAA photo identifies it (apparently erroneously) as having belonged to Princess Ka'iulani of Hawaii.
label: Notes
content: An intramural transfer of specimens document filed in accession file 36053 dated February 18, 1965 lists this boat as part of a group of boats transferred from the Division of Transportation to the Division of Ethnology, Department of Anthropology. It is identified on the form as a Samoan fishing canoe.
label: Notes
content: Red paint on exterior. Canoe hull is not a dugout but rather constructed by the sewn-plank technique. This would be a 2 or 3 person canoe per Regina Meredith of American Samoa, siapo (tapa) maker, artist, and teacher.
label: Notes
content: Seems to be a Va'a alo according to the description of Te Rangi Hiroa (1930: 372; 380-404). By the time he did fieldwork in Samoa, only the paopao (small dugout) and va'a alo (bonito plank canoe) were being made.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Mar 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 3
place: label: Place
content: Tutuila Island, American Samoa, United States, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Samoan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 023392
label: USNM Number
content: E160333-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Canoe / Paddle
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 58 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 46 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 7.2 m