A Man from the Umingmaktormiut Tribe

Image by Smithsonian Institution
Author: Hansen, Leo

Subject: Umingmaktormiut

Type: Photographic print
    Person, candid

Date: 1924

Topic: Arctic peoples
     Beard
     Canada
     Clothing and dress
     Eskimos
     Inupiat
     Native Americans
     Scientific expeditions
     Winter

Standard number: 2005-8629

Physical description: Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and white; Size: 8w x 10h; Type of Image: Person, Candid; Medium: Photographic print

Notes: Born in Greenland of a Danish missionary father and an Inuit mother, Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen, 1879-1933, was a Danish arctic explorer and ethnologist, who between 1921 and 1924, led a small band of colleagues in a journey of investigation across arctic North America from Hudson Bay to the Bering Strait. In 1910 he established his Thule station at Cape York, Greenland, the base for seven expeditions, five led by Rasmussen himself. Rasmussen was an excellent explorer, interpreter, and translator. He documented many Inuit legends that may have gone unnoticed without him. His work helped future explorers and he will always be remembered as the first man to cross the Northwest Passage by dog sled. He made a visit in 1924 to Washington, D.C., with several of his expedition companions. The visit was documented by Science Service, a news service established in 1920, which also publicized his expeditions

Summary: A man from the Umingmaktormiut, an Eskimo tribe that before Rasmussen’s visit had never been described or photgraphed. Note the hoarfrost on his beard

Persistent URL:Link to data base record

Repository:Smithsonian Archives – History Div

View more collections from the Smithsonian Institution.