Hat
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1868
name: label: Collector
content: Ferdinand Bischoff
label: Donor Name
content: Ferdinand Bischoff
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ORNAMENTAL." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "HEAD-DRESS.-CIRCULAR CAP MADE OF BLACK GLISTENING LEATHER, ORNAMENTED PROFUSELY WITH EMBROIDERED WORK IN WHITE AND RED. THE EDGE OF THE RIM OF THE TOP AND THE VISOR EDGE ARE BORDERED WITH WHITE FUR, THE FORMER HAVING ALSO A ROW OF COLORED THREADS AND WHITE HAIRS. KADIAK BAY, FOX ISLANDS, UNALASHKWAN INDIANS. DIAM. OF TOP 8 1/2 INS. HEIGHT, 3 1/2 INS. DIAM., 7 1/4. ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, 1868. 6,555. COLLECTED BY F. BISCHOFF."
label: Notes
content: Provenience note: Locality is uncertain. Ledger book and catalogue card say "Kodiak Bay, Fox Islands"; old exhibit label with catalogue cards calls it "Kadiak Bay". Kadiak is another name for Kodiak, however Kodiak is an island, not a bay, and is not in or near the Fox Islands. ("Kadiak Bay" is usually considered to be another name for Camp Coogan Bay, on Baranof Island, Alexander Archipelago, which is not in the Fox Islands.) Part of the confusion may result from the fact that Bischoff was based at Kodiak at this time.
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 http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=19, retrieved 5-8-2014: Hat Ivan Veniaminov noted in his Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District (originally published in 1840) that before contact with the Russians, Unangan men and women went bareheaded except for the wooden hunting hats that men wore at sea and the skin caps that both sexes put on for dances and celebrations. He wrote, "Consequently when the Aleuts saw the first Russians, who covered their heads, they called them, before [knowing] any other name, saligungin, that is one having caps or hats . . ." In later years, homemade Russian-style caps with visors, made of cloth or seal skin, became popular among Unangan men. This beautifully decorated example from Unalaska Island dates to 1868, only a year after Alaska passed out of Russian control and became a territory of the United States. While the shape of the hat is Russian, its ornamentation is purely Unangan. Embroidery in caribou hair or cotton thread, strips of colored seal esophagus (red, black, and white), dyed yarn, hair, and fur (identified by Elders as fox) mark this as a hat for special occasions or ceremonies. It is made of stiff skin, and painted with a black, sparkling paint. This is possibly the traditional pigment made with volcanic scoria and octopus bile that was described by Bill Tcheripanoff (b. Akutan, 1902). Stepan Glotov, who was on Umnak and Unalaska in 1759-62, noted that people there painted their faces with "silvery glitter." From Elders' discussions of the parka in 2003 with Mary N. Bourdukofsky, Vlass Shabolin, Maria Turnpaugh and Daria Dirks (Tanadgusix Foundation) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/07/2003-4/11/2003. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA). Mary Bourdukofsky: This looks like a man's, because it's got that visor. Daria Dirks: What do you call this? Mary Bourdukofsky: Tayug^a saleeg^uu. (Men's hat - The word saleeg^uu [hat] can refer to any kind of hat, including a hunting hat, hunting visor, stocking hat or baseball cap.)) Aron Crowell: Have any of you seen any hats like this one? Vlass Shabolin: It's the first time I've seen one. Mary Bourdukofsky: It's the first time. Maria Turnpaugh: Just in pictures. Mary Bourdukofsky: Did you notice the embroidery on the top part?
label: Notes
content: Maria Turnpaugh: Yes. Mary Bourdukofsky: Very fine thread embroidery. Look at this fine fur right there [on top]. Maria Turnpaugh: It looks like fox hair. And it's mixed with a little thread. Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes, black and red thread. Aron Crowell: And how about the embroidery stitches themselves? Mary Bourdukofsky: Cotton. How come it's black? Do you think that's material or is it a skin? Maria Turnpaugh: It feels like some kind of skin. Mary Bourdukofsky: Animal leather of some kind. It could be seal or . . . Maria Turnpaugh: It also could be dyed. Mary Bourdukofsky: Skin dyed black, yes.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kodiak Bay, Aleutian Islands / Fox Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 001327
label: USNM Number
content: E6555-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Hat
physicalDescription: label: Diameter - Top
content: 21.6 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 8.9 cm
label: Diameter - Object
content: 18.41 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 23.5 cm