Packing Box Item Number: E7833-1 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

Rectangular box; no top/lid present. Card indicates this is Inuit made.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/196 , retrieved 2-11-2020: Box made from wood. The side pieces and the bottom are joined to the end pieces by small wooden pegs inserted through drilled holes. There is no top with this box, although grooves cut into the upper edges of the side pieces for holding a top indicate that it once had one. The outer surfaces of the sides, ends and bottom have been stained with three bands of red ochre. This item is identified in the Smithsonian Institution's catalogue as a packing box. More information available here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/12: The MacFarlane collection contains a variety of wooden boxes. Boxes carved from single pieces of wood, and boxes with sides made from bent pieces of wood with bottoms pegged to them, are traditional Inuvialuit forms that were used for storing tools and other objects. Boxes with separate pieces for each side, bottom and top identified in the Smithsonian Institution's artifact catalogue as 'Packing Box Made by Esquimaux' may have been commissioned by MacFarlane for packing artifacts that were sent to the Smithsonian.