Notes

FROM CARD: "LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE FIG.,100, P. 90. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads of Continents photo caption identifies this as a stool used while waiting for seals at their breathing holes. FROM SECOND CARD: "SEAL-HUNTER'S STOOL. WOOD, HEART-SHAPED; TRIANGULAR HOLE CUT NEAR THE CENTER, WITH CHAMFERED EDGE ON LOWER SIDES; THREE SMALL WOODEN PEGS INSERTED AS LEGS. SIZE, 12 3/4 BY 8 INCHES; HEIGHT, 5 3/8 INCHES. ANDERSON RIVER, ARCTIC COAST. 3978. R. MACFARLANE. A ROUGHLY CONSTRUCTED BUT DURABLE UTENSIL, USED BY ESKIMOS TO STAND UPON WHILE WATCHING FOR SEALS IN WINTER." Described p. 116 in Brown, James Temple. 1883. The whale fishery and its appliances. Washington: Govt. print. off.. Description is the same as that listed on second card.Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/143 , retrieved 1-8-2020: Three-legged stool, made from wood. The top is somewhat triangular is shape, with rounded corners, two outward-curving sides and one side with a deep inward curve. A triangular hole has been cut into the top, both to allow the stool to be carried and to reduce overall weight. The edges of the stool top and of the triangular hole have been beveled on the underside surface. The legs are inserted through holes drilled into the top piece, and taper from top to bottom. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/54: Stools were used when hunting seals at breathing holes or when fishing through holes cut through ice. Hunters would either stand on the stool, with heels together over one leg and the other legs supporting the toes of each foot, or would sit on the stool.Listed on page 28 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Family Group of the Western Eskimo, Alaska".