Résumés
Abstract
In 1851, during his stay in what was then Russian America, Finnish scientist Henrik Johan Holmberg (1818–1864) collected a unique assortment of some four hundred objects primarily from the Indigenous people of southern Alaska and the Northwest Coast. The collection included skin clothing, dress ornaments, hunting equipment, household tools, and ceremonial objects from the Koniags (of Kodiak Island off the coast of South Alaska) and the Tlingit (along the Pacific Northwest Coast). On his journey home in 1852, Holmberg visited Copenhagen and the Museum of Northern Antiquities (later the National Museum of Denmark). There, he met Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865), museum director, Danish antiquarian, and creator of the so-called “three-period system,” which divided early human history into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Last, but not least, Thomsen founded the first ethnographic museum in the world. Thomsen, who never missed an opportunity to increase the museum’s collections, succeeded in buying Holmberg’s collection from him, perhaps because of Holmberg’s poor finances. The Holmberg Collection consists of unique specimens from a period before the Indigenous population was forever influenced by the cultural changes that were introduced with the early Russian trade. This article focuses the Holmberg Collection of skin clothing, which differed considerably from that of the more northerly Inuit people. The collection is part of the Danish National Museum’s interdisciplinary research initiative Northern Worlds, under the subproject “Skin Clothing from the North,” which includes the museum’s large collection of skin clothing from circumpolar Indigenous people.
Keywords:
- Rare skin clothing,
- documentation,
- Skin Clothing Online,
- Kodiak Island,
- Henrik Johan Holmberg
Résumé
En 1851, pendant son séjour dans ce qui était alors l’Amérique russe, Henrik Johan Holmberg (1818-1864), un scientifique finlandais, recueillit un assortiment unique d’environ 400 objets provenant principalement des Peuples autochtones du sud de l’Alaska et de la côte nord-ouest. La collection comprenait des vêtements en peau, des parures de vêtements, du matériel de chasse, des outils ménagers et des objets cérémoniels des Koniags (de l’île Kodiak au large du sud de l’Alaska) et des Tlingit (le long de la côte nord-ouest du Pacifique). Lors de son voyage de retour chez lui en 1852, Holmberg se rendit à Copenhague et au musée des antiquités du nord (devenu plus tard le Musée national du Danemark). Il y rencontra Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788-1865), directeur de musée, antiquaire danois et créateur du prétendu « système à trois périodes », qui divisait la première histoire de l’humanité en deux âges : l’âge de pierre, l’âge de bronze et l’âge de fer. Enfin, et surtout, Thomsen fonda le premier musée ethnographique au monde. Thomsen, qui n’a jamais manqué d’augmenter les collections du musée, réussit à racheter la collection de Holmberg, peut-être en raison de la situation financière précaire de Holmberg. La collection Holmberg est composée de spécimens uniques datant d’une période antérieure à l’influence prévisible de la population autochtone sur les changements culturels introduits lors du commerce précoce de la Russie. Cet article se concentre sur la collection de vêtements en peau Holmberg, qui diffère considérablement de celle des Inuit plus septentrionaux. La collection fait partie de l’initiative de recherche interdisciplinaire Northern World du Musée national danois, dans le cadre du sous-projet Vêtements de peau du Nord, qui comprend une vaste collection de vêtements de peau des Peuples autochtones circumpolaires.
Mots-clés:
- Vêtements de peau rares,
- documentation,
- Skin Clothing Online,
- île de Kodiak,
- Henrik Johan Holmberg
Parties annexes
Archival Sources
- Anon, 1853 Ethnographic Collection’s accession report. Register I. Ethnographic Collection, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.
- Holmberg, Henrik Johan, 1852–1855 Six letters to Thomsen, C.J., dated 1 March 1853, 4 May 1853, 26 June 1853, 18 August 1853, 12 September 1853, 25 September 1855. Archives of the Ethnographic Collection, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.
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