Woman's Parka
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Dec 1866
name: label: Donor Name
content: Roderick R. MacFarlane
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "THIS NUMBER INCLUDES PANTS AS WELL. SHIRT FOUND 1975."
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/65 , retrieved 12-19-2019: Woman's caribou skin parka. The parka has long rounded flaps at the front and back and the sides are rounded just below the hips. The entire hem is trimmed with wolverine fur. The hood is large and loose fitting. Decorative bands of white and dark clipped caribou skin with snippets of red wool and loops of red yarn surround the opening for the head. A trim of wolverine fur is set back from the head opening. There is a decorative insert, with skin tags, on the front flap. The white haired gores on the chest also have red yarn snippets. A trim of wolverine fur is set back from the head opening. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/44: In winter men, women and children wore skin parkas (qusungat) over an inner garment (atigi). They were skillfully tailored using many individual pieces of skin (usually caribou) chosen for the thickness of the hide and qualities of the hair. Men's and women's parkas each had their own style, evident in the shape of the hood and the hem, and children's clothing mirrored the clothing of adults. Each parka was made to fit one particular individual, with the seamstress measuring with hand and eye and following complex patterns that were handed down from generation to generation. Parkas were decorated by incorporating pieces of skin with shorn hair and contrasting colours, and were sometimes coloured with dyes. The hood, cuffs and hem of the parka were usually trimmed with wolverine fur, which kept the cold out and because frost was easy to brush off the thick and stiff fur.
label: Notes
content: Exhibited on female mannequin at Chicago World's Fair of 1893. See National Anthropological Archives Manuscript # 7217, entry on Figure No. 8, where it is listed (and exhibited) as same number/forming a set with the pair of trousers, which are now listed as # E1701-1
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 May 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Northwest Territories, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit, Inuvialuk (Inuvialuit)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00090
label: USNM Number
content: E1701-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Parka