Combination Suit
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Oct 1913
name: label: Collector
content: Riley D. Moore
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. National Museum
notes: 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=322 , retrieved 7-31-2018; see web page for additional information: Combination suit. In winter, women and girls on St. Lawrence Island traditionally wore the qallevak, a one-piece suit made of reindeer fur. It had wide sleeves, a V-neck, and short pant-legs that tied over the tops of a woman's boots. This type of garment is distinctly Siberian in its origins, and was also worn in the Chukotka and Kamchatka regions by Yupik, Chukchi, Koryak, and Itelmen women.(1) It did not occur elsewhere in Alaska. Babies wore similar suits except that the hands and feet were sewn shut for extra warmth. The crotch was cut out for a diaper made of moss and soft grass, and beads were tied on as protective charms. Suits for new-born infants were made of the softest skins of reindeer fawns, with the hair side in. When children were old enough to go outside in the winter, they were dressed in double suits made of thicker skins.(2) 1. Bogoras 1904-09:244-245; Doty 1900:199 2. Bogoras 1904-09:252; Hughes 1984:265.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yupik, St. Lawrence Island
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 055962
label: USNM Number
content: E280101-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Combination Suit
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 111 cm