Jesup North Pacific Expedition

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The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897-1902) was a major anthropological expedition to Siberia, Alaska, and the north west coast of Canada. The purpose of the expedition was to investigate the relationships between the peoples at each side of the Bering Strait. The expedition was sponsored by industrialist-philanthropist Morris Jesup (who was among other things the president of the American Museum of Natural History), and planned and directed by Franz Boas. The participants included a number of significant figures in American and Russian anthropology, and the expedition produced a number of important ethnographies, as well as valuable collections of artifacts and photographs.[1]

[edit] Fieldwork sites

The ethnic groups studied by members of the expedition include:

[edit] Official Publications

Many of the scientific results of the expedition were published in a special series, Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition (New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1898-1903 [and] Leiden : E.J. Brill ; New York : G.E. Stechert, 1905-1930). The titles of these publications gives a good idea of the huge scope of the expedition:

Volume Title Author (links to sections below) Year
v. 1, pt. 1 Facial paintings of the Indians of northern British Columbia Franz Boas 1898
v. 1, pt. 2 The mythology of the Bella Coola Indians Franz Boas 1898
v. 1, pt. 3 Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia Harlan Ingersoll Smith 1899
v. 1, pt. 4 The Thompson Indians of British Columbia James Alexander Teit ; edited by Franz Boas 1900
v. 1, pt. 5 Basketry designs of the Salish Indians Livingston Farrand 1900
v. 1, pt. 6 Archaeology of the Thompson River Region, British Columbia Harlan Ingersoll Smith 1900
v. 2, pt. 1 Traditions of the Chilcotin Indians Livingston Farrand 1900
v. 2, pt. 2 Cairns of British Columbia and Washington Harlan Ingersoll Smith and Gerard Fowke 1901
v. 2, pt. 3 Traditions of the Quinault Indians Livingston Farrand, assisted by W.S. Kahnweiler 1902
v. 2, pt. 4 Shell-heaps of the lower Fraser River, British Columbia Harlan Ingersoll Smith 1903
v. 2, pt. 5 The Lillooet Indians James Alexander Teit 1906
v. 2, pt. 6 Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound Harlan Ingersoll Smith 1907
v. 2, pt. 7 The Shuswap James Alexander Teit 1909
v. 3 Kwakiutl texts Franz Boas and George Hunt 1905
v. 4 The decorative art of the Amur tribes Berthold Laufer 1902
v. 5, pt. 1 Contributions to the ethnology of the Haida John R. Swanton 1905
v. 5, pt. 2 The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island Franz Boas 1909
v. 6 The Koryaks Waldemar Jochelson 1908
v. 7 The Chukchee Waldemar Bogoras 1904-1909
v. 8, pt. 1 Chukchee mythology Waldemar Bogoras 1910
v. 8, pt. 2 Mythology of the Thompson Indians James Alexander Teit 1912
v. 8, pt. 3 The Eskimo of Siberia Waldemar Bogoras 1913
v. 9 The Yukaghir and Yukaghirized Tungus Waldemar Jochelson 1926
v. 10, pt. 1 Kwakiutl texts, second series Franz Boas and George Hunt 1906
v. 10, pt. 2 Haida texts, Masset dialect John R. Swanton 1908
v. 11 Craniology of the North Pacific Coast Bruno Oetteking 1930
[v. 12] Ethnographical album of the North Pacific coasts of America and Asia 1900

Other results of the expedition were published separately. Waldemar Bogoras's grammar of Chukchi, Koryak and Itelmen (misleadingly titled just Chukchee) was delayed by the onset of the First World War and Russian Revolution. It was eventually published (heavily edited by Boas) in the Handbook of American Indian Languages.

[edit] Expedition direction

[edit] Franz Boas

Franz Boas, one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, was the scientific director of the expedition. At the time of the expedition he was assistant curator of the American Museum's Department of Anthropology. He planned the research to address three questions:

  • the origin of the early inhabitants of America
  • the biological relationship between the peoples of America and the peoples of Asia
  • the relationships between the cultures of the peoples of America and the peoples fo Asia

Boas was an active fieldworker on the northwest coast in the American part of the expedition.

[edit] Morris Jesup

Morris Ketchum Jesup, a wealthy industrialist-benefactor and director of the American Museum, originally invited contributions from the friends of the American Museum to back the expedition, but ended up assuming the entire expense of the project himself.

[edit] Fieldworkers in Russia

The Siberian fieldwork began a year later. There were three teams, one in the south and two in the north. The southern team comprised Berthold Laufer and Gerard Fowke. Bogoras and Jochelson each had a team in the north.

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[edit] Berthold Laufer

Berthold Laufer was an ethnologist. He worked on the Amur River and Sakhalin Island during 16 months over 1898-1899. He studied the Nivkhi, Evenk and Ainu, and published a monograph in the expedition series, The decorative art of the Amur tribes.

[edit] Gerard Fowke

Gerard Fowke, an archaeologist,

[edit] Waldemar Bogoras

Waldemar Bogoras was an exiled Russian revolutionary; ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork with the Chukchi and Siberian Yupik peoples of the western side of the Bering Strait. He was accompanied on the expedition by his wife Sofia Bogoraz, who acted as photographer.

[edit] Dina Brodsky

Dina Brodsky (aka Jochelson-Brodskaya) ethnography and photographic record of Koryak and Itelmen communities (with husband Waldemar Jochelson)

[edit] Waldemar Jochelson

Vladimir Jochelson (with wife Dina Jochelson-Brodskaya)

[edit] Fieldworkers in America

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[edit] Livingston Farrand

Livingston Farrand

[edit] George Hunt

George Hunt; lots of info at [1] recorded Kwakiutl texts[2]

[edit] Harlan Smith

Harlan Smith see: [2]

[edit] John Swanton

John Swanton

[edit] James Teit

James Teit see: [3] and [4]

[edit] Bruno Oetteking

Bruno Oetteking

[edit] Links

  • In 1988 there was an exhibition Crossroads of Continents based on the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.[3]
  • In 1997 the American Museum of Natural History held an exhibition of photography from the Jesup North Pacific Expedition titled Drawing Shadows to Stone[1]
  • More biographical information about the Jesup North Pacific Expedition members is also available from the AMNH website

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Kendall, Laurel; Barbara Mathe, Thomas Ross Miller (1997). Drawing Shadows to Stone: The Photography of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1897-1902. ISBN 0-295-97647-0. 
  2. ^ Hunt, George; Franz Boas (1902). Kwakiutl Texts. Memoirs of the American museum of natural history: publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. New York: American Museum of Natural History. 
  3. ^ Fitzhugh, W.W.; A. Crowell (1988). Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 0-87474-442-3. 
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