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Object Number 39-118-10/18670
Display Title Birch bark canoe
Descriptions
Object Description Birchbark canoe with five thwarts. The three middle thwarts taper in the middle and flare at the ends. The seams of the bark are stitched with split root lashing and caulked with pine or spruce pitch. The gunwale members are secured with split root lashing (at regular intervals) and with nails. Both ends of the vessel have been closed (at their stempieces) in the original construction with hide/skin and caulked with pine or spruce pitch. There is decorative cross-hatching on pieced panels of bark (amidships, both sides), and on wulegessis (a.k.a. bark deck flaps) at both ends. Amidships there is diagonal split root stitching adjacent to aforementioned pieced panels of bark. The catalog # (18670) is written on the floor of the canoe, between the 1st and 2nd thwarts on one e[see Object Description text entry for extended description]
Inventory Description Canoe, birchbark, five cross-members across top, cross-hatch designs on flaps at bow and stern and at areas either side at middle, nails along tops of gunwales, loss of resin at bow and stern, splits in places
Classification
  • Canoe
Department Ethnographic
Date Early 20th century
Culture
  • Penobscot
  • Eastern Abenaki
Geography/Provenience/Site Name
North America / United States / Maine
Dimensions Overall: 193 × 33 × 16 1/2 in. (16.08 × 2.75 × 1.37 Ft)
Quantity 1
Label on object 39-118-10/18670
Provenance
Collector Dr. John C. Phillips (early 1900s)
Donor Mrs. John C. Phillips (12/06/1939)

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