The Peabody Museum at Harvard has several kayaks in their collection which are currently being gently refreshed by the museum conservators. The museum display includes a nice collection of kayak models, hats, spears, paddles, wedding boxes.... http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/747 I stopped by with a co-worker last week. The Alutiiq boat was collected in about 1860. According to the conservators this is the only known original Alutiiq warriors kayak in the world. The skins in the boat are done with matching seams so the boat looks symmetric, from side to side. It appears to have human hair in the bow gap. The skin has ripped in multiple place from drying out during storage. Most of the rips are near but not on the seams, the conservators commented that the sinew used for sewing the skins is very strong, stronger than the surrounding material. The boat is pretty dark, it's tough to make out any painting that may be on the surface. Internally there are lots of broken and cracked ribs, but overall the shape looks pretty good. On interesting feature is what appears to be human hair in the gap of the bifurcated bow. It's not clear who's hair it might be, the leading conjecture is it's hair from an elder/ancestor, it was also suggested it could be hair from an enemy collected during a raid. Also under conservation was a Yupik boat. The Yupik boat was much newer, and in better shape. This boat is big. It's wide and tall with a large circular cockpit, but with a V bottom. It looks like it might paddle the best with several hundred bounds of seal/fish catch stowed below decks. The paint job on this boat is going to be fascinating as it get cleaned up. There are paintings of arms with hands on the deck with sea mammals within circles in the elbows or palms of the hands. I'll be heading back over a few times during the conservation efforts, should anyone be in the area and want company - for the cheapskates in the crowd wednesdays from 3 to 5 are free for massachusetts residents. Kirk -- Kirk Olsen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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