Upper Yukon Man 's H unting Canoe, MP 63, 37 5ls" I n the N orthwest Territories, B ritish Columbia, Alaska and Washington State Indians built bark canoes that had some superficial resemblance to Eskimo kayaks. They were flat-bottomed, !owsided and narrow and usually were partly decked. The material and structure ofthis canoe were in good condition, needing only a small amount of repair using Japanese paper, and a fight surface cleaning. A few ofthe ribs were loose, and were gently moved bacl? into place and secured. The Yukon native was cleaned using a jeweler's vacuum. The figure's hair contained a fayer ofgrime that was carefully removed with a damp cotton swab. Both ofthe figure 's hands were cleaned ofadhesive that had been used to secure the paddle.
Athapascan birch bark canoe, Fraser River region, MP 49, 51 112" This form of undecked kayak-canoe ofAthapascan construction survives only as an old mode! in the Peabody Museum. ft was long extinct before Adney began studying canoe types, and no description ofthe full-sized canoe survives. Edwin Tappan Adney built this mode! in February 1927 using a single piece of bark for the huff. Conservators at the Canadian Conservation I nstitute (CCI) cleaned the exterior and interior of the mode! and evaluated the possibility of realigning several of the ribs. Due to the fragility ofthe root material used to bind the thwarts, they opted to !eave the ribs as they were and reinforce the bindings with thin Japanese paper strips.
Ma!ecite Moose Hide canoe, M P 140, 32" Chapelle refers to the skin canoes as temporary or emergency vessels, built by North American I ndians only when they did not have time or materials available for a bark or dugout canoe. These vessels were different from the skin boats used by Eskimos; the Eskimos would first create a framework which could stand on its own and was then covered with skins sewn to fit. Indian skin canoes, however, required the covering to hold the framework together. A gunwale frame and thwarts were made from small saplings; skins were softened, sewn together and put over the frame to stiffen in place. Once the skins were trimmed and sewn in place the canoe was sheathed inside with small poles. One of the few animal skin canoes in this collection, its deer skin was in remarkably good condition, needing only a thorough dry surface cleaning. Adney included with the mode! bundled bark. Conservators radiographed one of the bundles to see if the contents could be determined, and a!! they were able to discover was that it appeared to be filled with fabric. The material that binds the bundled bark was repaired using dyed Japanese paper and a 5 % solution of wheat starch.
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he apprenriced to a nari ve Malecire canoe builder, and, by 1889, he had co nsrrucred his fos r full -s ized bark canoe. Afrerward, Ad ney traveled widely, researching documenrary so urces and con ducting oral interviews with canoe builders. H e eve n interviewed some of the last canoe builders fo r the Hudson's Bay Com pany. D uring his travels he kep t exhaustive no tes documenring the canoe design and cons truction techniques of the many cul tures he enco untered and added fu rther substance to his body of work with his study of linguistics. Using h is amassed research and earlier canoe-buildi ng experience Adn ey buil t accurate scale models of the full-s ized canoes he enco un tered duri ng his journeys. To co mplement the models, he intend ed to produce a manuscript compiling his extensive research; unfo rtunately, he died before it could be acco m plished . Following h is death, Howard I. Chapelle, curatorof transportation at the Smi thsonian Institu tion , undertook the task of producing Adney's publication. T he res ul ting wo rk, Bark Canoes and Skin Boats ofNorth America, is still in prinr and stands as one of the most referenced books on the subj ect. T he Mariners' M useum acquired Adney's model collection in the 1940s and several years later add ed a large collection of his wo rking papers. Other segments of his archival collections are at the Peabody Essex M useum , Dartmo uth College, and the U niversity of
SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02