Collection: Fry

Item Number: Fry0163

Category: Harpoon

Region: Arctic

Tribe: Eskimo

Period: 1875-1900

Materials: Walrus ivory, whale bone forshaft, baleen wrappings and wood shaft

Description: This is a heavy harpoon with a toggle head point at one end, attached to a seal hide line, and a pick, for testing the ice, at the opposite end. The forshaft is whale bone, and the pick is walrus ivory lashed in place with seal hide. This is of the style found in Point Barrow, Alaska.

Dimensions: 71"

Exhibitions:

Lure of the Arctic, Cincinnati Art Museum, October 2007 - January 2008

References:

Mason, Otis Tufton, Aboriginal Harpoons: A Study in Ethnographic Distribution and Invention, National Museum, 1900, p.281

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