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Description

Tunic with hood, made from strips of walrus intestine stitched together. Along the bottom of the tunic and each cuff darker skin has been sewn.; Good.
'Parka, thigh length, with attached hood. Main body is made from horizontal strips of sea mammal intestine; back of hood is made from vertical strips of same. Edge around face opening is turned to the interior to form a 0.9 cm casing overlaid with narrow band of red dyed sealskin secured with sinew in running stitch. Twisted sinew tie is threaded around casing emerging through two holes at centre front of neck. Holes are reinforced with rectangular piece of skin. Band (0.8 cm wide) of black dyed sealskin is attached to each cuff and around straight bottom edge. Structural sewing is with sinew. J. Hall, March 2005'

Context

(Bio): Admiral Spelman Swaine. J. Hall, March 2005
The tunic is given the provenance of Western Eskimo on the catalogue card, it may be Aleut (J.C.H.King, Museum of Mankind - 12 1992). The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separateGLT fields.; Collected by: Swaine.Admiral.Spelman in 1794.
Literature: See 'From Pacific Shores: Eighteenth-century Ethnographic Collections at Cambridge - The Voyages of Cook, Vancouver and the First Fleet' (J. Tanner, 1999:78). See 'Artificial Curiosities from the Northwest Coast of America (J.C.H. King, 1981: cf. Monochrome Plates 21-22).
This item is probably 1836.45 in the Wisbech Museum records (J.Tanner, December 1998).
Vancouver Collection: George Vancouver (1758-1798) was born in King' s Lynn, Norfolk. His father, John Jasper Vancouver was assistant collector of customs at King's Lynn, which was at that time a busy seaport. It is believed that through his connections he was able to bring George to the attention of Captain James Cook, who was then preparing to sail on the second of his world voyages. Thus George entered the Royal Navy in 1771 upon receiving an appointment from Cook and thereby gained a rigorous training in seamanship. In 1791 Vancouver was sent on a mission to receive the surrender of the Spanish post at Nootka Sound in present day British Columbia, to survey the coast of the American Northwest, and to search for a water connection to the eastern part of the continent. He wrote a lengthy account of his voyage entitled, ' A Voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean, and Round the World' (1798). It was on this latter voyage that Spelman Swaine accompanied Vancouver and acquired the objects held at UCMAA. Spelman Swaine was born on 1st January 1769 at Lynn Regis in Norfolk and died on 13th January 1848 at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. His forebears had risen from the ranks of yeoman farmers to gain land in the village of Leverington and build Leverington Hall about 1640, which was held by the family until the end of the 18th century. Swaine himself was brought up at Swanns, another mansion in Leverington, but later moved to Wisbech. He began his naval career in April 1782 and by the October he saw action as midshipman on the ' Recovery' in Lord Howe' s relief of Gibraltar. Thereafter, he lead an eventful and distinguished naval career, finally gaining the rank of Rear Admiral in 1846. In particular, the Swaine collection at UCMAA originates from his period with Captain George Vancouver' s expedition round the world between 1791 and 1795 on the HMS Discovery, as midshipman and later lieutenant. Swaine and his family gave a small but important collection from this voyage to Wisbech Museum, which were later acquired by UCMAA. (J.Tanner, 1999).
(Bib): Black, Lydia Aleut Art. Anchorage, Alaska, 1982: 154-163. J. Hall, March 2005
(Bib): Hickman, Pat Innerskins/Outerskins: Gut and Fishskins. San Francisco: San Francisco Craft and Folk Museum, 1987. J. Hall, March 2005
(bio) Judy Hall, Curator of Eastern Woodlands and Arctic Ethnology, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.