ARCTIC HUNTERS, AMERICAN EXPLORERS, ADVENTURERS, AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS: The ex-Museum of the American Indian Collection of Kayaks at the Canadian Canoe Museum

Abstract

This case study introduces a legacy collection of historic Indigenous Arctic watercraft from North America and Greenland, composed of ten kayaks and an umiak, that were originally at the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation (whose collections now form the core collection of the National Museum of the American Indian) in New York City. The collection was formed in the early twentieth century, sold to the Kanawa International Museum of Canoes, Kayaks and Rowing Craft in the 1970s, and acquired by the Canadian Canoe Museum in the 1990s. The museum catalog cards that accompanied the transfer of the MAI collection contain information about provenance and location. This article examines the provenance information, archival documentation, and related primary sources to explore the background of some of the early-twentieth-century Arctic hunters and non-Indigenous explorers and adventurers associated with these heritage items.