HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



Eskimo 

 Collection. 



Peary Relief 



Expedition, 



1895. 



Stefa'nsson- 



Anderson 



Expedition. 



This Museum stands preeminent among all institutions along the 

 lines of ethnological research amid Arctic peoples. The whole culture 

 of the Eskimo tribes, with the exception of East Greenland, is repre- 

 sented in the collections. Material from the Siberian Eskimo was 

 secured by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition; the tribes from the 

 northwest coast of Alaska are represented in the Emmons Collection; 

 a collection from the Mackenzie River region was obtained by Mr. An- 

 drew J. Stone; Captain George Comer made extensive collections in King 

 William Land, the north coast of Hudson Bay, Melville Peninsula, 

 Baffin Land at the extreme north end of Fox Channel, and South- 

 ampton Island. The Cumberland Sound region of Baffin Land is 

 represented in the Mutch Collection. The material from Grant Land, 

 Ellesmere Land and North Greenland was collected by Commander 

 Peary, while Holstensborg and Discoe Islands off the southwest shore 

 of Greenland are represented in a collection presented by Mr. G. Fred- 

 erick Norton. 



Captain George Comer has been collecting ethnological material 

 for the Museum during his extensive whaling cruises. His last ship- 

 ment, received in 1908, consisted of 308 specimens which he had 

 gathered around Eclipse Sound and Baffin Bay. 



Through Mr. Jesup's relation with the Peary Relief Expedition of 

 1895, the Museum received the anthropological material gathered by 

 Commander Peary in the Arctic. The collection, which provided mate- 

 rial for several groups, contained canoes, sleds, sealskin tents, costumes, 

 and implements used in the chase and in the daily life of the Eskimo. 



The material brought back in 1906 was the gift of the Peary Arctic 

 Club. The sledge which Mr. Peary had christened the "Morris K. 

 Jesup," by the use of which he reached the then farthest north record, 

 was received in this collection. 



The Eskimo along the shores of the Beaufort Sea and among the 

 islands east of the mouth of the Mackenzie River are being studied by 

 Mr. V. Stefjinsson and Dr. R. M. Anderson, who left on a Museum 

 expedition in the spring of 1908, to remain in the field for two or three 

 years. 



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