Engraved walrus tusk with incised and darkened village shore scene with steamboat (both sides). So-called "Western Pictorial Style.
Donor:
Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Collection place:
Western Alaska
Verbatim coll. place:
Alaska; Western Alaska
Culture or time period:
Alaskan Eskimo
Maker or artist:
Guy Kakaryook
Collector:
Charles L. Hall
Collection date:
ca. 1895
Materials:
Ash (wood) and Ivory (material)
Taxon:
Odobenus rosmarus
Place depicted:
Fort Cudahy, Yukon, Canada
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Carvings (visual works)
Function:
5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions
Accession date:
August 12, 1902
Context of use:
Novelty. 2-150 is engraved by Guy Kakarook, one of many of his works depicting scenes of St. Michael, where he lived most of his life during which the small, originally Russian town boomed as a hub for shipbuilding during the Gold Rush. Steamboats like the one engraved carried gold from Dawson City to St. Michael via the Yukon River. Its proximity to the river also made it a trading post for Yup’iks to trade with nonnatives for nonnative goods.
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
length 26.7 centimeters
Comment:
att. to Guy Kakarook by D.J. Ray" (He is not maker, fide Judith Polanich.) See Dorothy Jean Ray, Eskimo Art, fig. 257 and text p. 236, "tusk engraved with two scenes identical to two crayon and watercolor sketches on Guy Kakarook's notebook." Published in Jones, Suzi, ed. Eskimo drawings. Anchorage Museum of History & Art, 2003. Published and illustrated in Suzi Jones "Eskimo Drawings" 2003. pg 27.