FROM CARD: "ILLUS., IN USNM ANNUAL REPORT, 1888, P1. 27, FIG. 119, P. 286."

Originally catalogued as "Canadian Indians," From card: "Buckskin-fringed and quilled. Long looped suspension cord. Object is illus.: Fig. 26, p. 128 "Yukon River Athapaskan Costume in the 1860's" by Kate Duncan in Faces, Voices & Dreams; Division of Alaska State Museums; 1987. Object is identified there as Athabaskan knife case."

FROM CARD: "ESKIMO KNIFE. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 4, FIG. 5C, P. 401. IDENTIFIED THERE AS KNIFE OF ATHABASKAN TYPE MADE FROM FILE."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/37 , retrieved 12-17-2019: Knife made from a single piece of iron that serves as the blade, handle and pommel. Remnants of cross-hatched lines on the surface of the blade show that this knife was made from a file. The blade has been sharpened along one edge. It is narrower at the handle, which has been wrapped with light and dark pieces of hide thong. The pommel was made by splitting and bending the piece of iron below the handle. This style of knife, and in particular the shape of the pommel, is characteristic of iron knives made in Siberia and traded throughout the western Arctic and Subarctic, although it may have been made locally, copying that design.

FROM CARD: "ONCE IDENTIFIED AS ESKIMO. BROAD BLADED STEEL KNIFE BIFURCATING INTO A Y-SHAPED HANDLE WITH COILED TIPS. HANDLE LASHED WITH CANE. BLADE WITH CENTRAL RIDGE ON ONE SIDE ONLY. *DOUBLE ENTRY UNDER CAT. #601. ILLUS. IN THE FAR NORTH CATALOG, NAT. GALL. OF ART, 1973, P. 157. LOANED TO THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN 09/13/76. LOAN RETURNED 7/28/1977. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 304, P.229." Crossroads of Continents caption identifies as probably Kutchin: "Long knives with flaring, voluted handles were used for both hunting and fighting. They were originally made from copper obtained through the native trade system; later examples like this one collected in the 1860s are made of trade steel. Lashed to wooden poles, they were used by especially daring hunters to kill bears."

item is from the Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

item is from the Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

The dye is purple.

The rock is pumice.