Woman's Clothing Set: Coat Or Parka
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1885
name: label: Donor Name
content: James W. Johnson
notes: label: Notes
content: Color digital photo negative number NHB2013-00205 is view of front of parka; NHB2013-00204 is view of the back.
label: Notes
content: Description for parka/coat E76708-0 and separate hood E76708-2: The ground squirrel coat has long sleeves with under arm gussets, a high neck and a slightly flaring torso that extends below the knees with a straight hem. It has a complicated construction from pieced furred skins, primarily ground squirrel with white caribou? and other furs added as both structural and decorative elements. The detached hood constructed of similar fur fits over the head with a flare around the neck opening. It has a thick caribou? ruff of the hood. On the coat, white caribou? is inserted as panels on the upper chest on both sides and in strips down both sleeves, over the shoulders and along the back of the hood. It also is banded around the wrists and around the collar as a secondary layer. It is stitched as large fringed tabs on both sides at the center and as an element in the fringes. Narrow bands of white and red skin stitched down with quill? embellish the caribou inserts and large tabs. There is red wool fabric banding around the neck and wrists. Long caribou strips forming tassels are attached to the sleeves. They also hangs as long fringe from the bottom of the inset chest panels and large skin tabs that are on both sides of the coat. Soft long haired furred strips also form fringe and banding around openings. There is also shorter fringe covering the coat. All the fringe has a strong red pigmentation on the flesh side. There are red yarns forming isolated fringes at the upper chest. On the hood, the bottom edge is cut into a fringe with a band of red pigmented skin around the neck opening on the interior. The stitching appears to be primarily sinew with some commercial thread. The catalog number is written in black ink inside the hood. The catalog number and "Ft. Alex Johnson" are written inside the coat at the hem with black ink.
label: Notes
content: Per Chuna McIntyre, Yup'ik artist, 2012, the parka is missing one fur tassel under right arm. There should be 4 tassels total; 2 under each arm.
label: Notes
content: Illus. p. 96 and described and illus. pp. 189 - 192 in Fienup-Riordan Ann Alice Rearden and Marie Meade. 2023. Tengautuli Atkuk = the Flying Parka : The Meaning and Making of Parkas in Southwest Alaska. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Hoodless parka, made in the qaliq style. Description of parka materials in publication note main part of parka as squirrel-skin; small band of mink around collar; caribou-skin chest plates on the front and back; white wolf decoration at hem; long wolverine-skin tassels. Also Martina Aparezuk "... noted that although the parka had no bead decorations, two small pieces of qercurtaq (freeze-dried skin) as well as pukiq (light-colored caribou belly skin) had been dyed red and used to create the parka designs."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jan 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fort Alexander (Nushagak), Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 016879
label: USNM Number
content: E76708-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Parka
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 117 cm
label: Width - Object, Across Arms
content: 134 cm
label: Width - Object, At Hem
content: 87 cm