In 1854, eleven fragments of pocket watches of
the still missing Franklin expedition came back to England. On October 23rd, The
Times published a report of Dr. John Rae about the ill-fated expedition. In it, he not only revealed details about the death of the men, but also mentioned items that he brought back. Part of these items were eleven pocket
watch cases, that are now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in
Greenwich. It is these pocket watch fragments that particularly caught my interest.
Charles Frances Hall, in search of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men, met on his second expedition some of the same Inuit family members as Dr. Charles Rae. Thanks to Too-koo-li-too, his Inuit translator, he was able to write down the Testimony of Ook-bar-loo, a woman who knew a lot about the watches - or as Too-koo-li-too put it, about the "witches". The full testimony is at the end of this blogpost. Interestingly, Ook-bar-loo told them how and where she had seen the pocket watches and from which material they were made of. While some Inuit families took them apart, one woman, Ad-lark, kept hers carefully intact with the key and the chain, in memory of the white man who had died.[1]
About 60 years later, a photograph of Atqâralâq, a Pâdlermiut woman, was taken by members of the Rasmussen expedition. Proudly, she wore a pocket watch around her neck, and the handles in her hair. Sitting before a tent, she not only gazes directly into the camera, she also shows the rings on her hands. Her hair is wrapped in cloth, intricately ornamented with a zigzag pattern. Being the favourite wife of Igjugârjuk, she not only had the most elegant tent, but also a hairband made out of a telescope, a scarf to keep her warm and rings made out of coins. Through these objects she showed her status and clearly set herself apart from the other women.[2] Understood by her peers, these objects worked as part of their social code.
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Kaj Birket-Smith, The Caribou Eskimos : material and social life and their cultural position, [Repr.], Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, New York: AMS Press 1976 [1929. |
While Atqâralâq lived some decades later, I strongly argue that there could have been a link between Ook-bar-loos testimony and the pocket watch fragments found by Ad-lark and other Netsilik families. In Ook-bar-loo's statement, she clearly indicates that she has seen pocket watch fragments before. While most of them were taken apart, she retells the story of Ad-lark: how she saw the chain and immediately knew what object was hidden. It took all her courage to free the object from the ice, while fearing coming too close to the dead white man.
The fashion historians Ingrid Loschek, Linda
Welters and Abby Lillethun pointed out, that a fashion is adopted by a group of people
at any given time and place. Rather than being passive, it is the recipients who decide what kind of dressing comes into fashion. While one person may wear something, it has to be accepted by a group through mimicry to be considered fashionable.[3] In this case, I propose that the pocket watch fragments became fashionable to the Netsilik Inuit after they found them on Franklin`s men.
While we know of only one woman, Ad-lark, who kept her pocket watch as a whole, it may very well be that Atqâralâq knew how to wear hers, because she either had seenother pocket watches or heard of them. There is a good chance that this fashion travelled through the Arctic given by the fact that both women lived in different places with different Inuit groups and at different times. The Netsilik Inuit played an important role in the 19th century land trade. While they received food from the Aivilik, they also traded with European products received from them, giving them to other Inuit groups.[6] Having an intensive trade network and established trade routes, not only objects and news travelled, but also a fashion, re-established by other Inuit women.
Ook-bar-loo`s testimony:
„A few minutes before meridian Too-koo-li-too said to me: "Ook-bar-loo has been telling me about a witch" —as I understood Too-koo-li-too to say. I dropped my pen and looked Too-koo-li-too directly in the face, supposing that I might catch the peculiar smile indicative that she had a joke on hand for me; but I saw she was in earnest, and that something of unusual interest must be in store for me. I therefore earnestly asked, " What did you say, Too-koo-li-too?" She replied, "The old lady has just been telling me of a watch just like yours (mine) only not so large, that she saw when at Pelly Bay, which was all in complete order, and had a long chain to go around the neck and a key; and the old lady, who had it, told her (Ook-bar-loo) that it once belonged to one of the many Kob-lu-nas that had died near Neitchille." I need not say that I was an attentive listener to this. At once I left my " tripod " (seat of three legs), and set myself flat down on the fur-bed deer-skins beside both Too-koo-li-too and Ook-bar-loo, and requested the old lady to tell me all about this watch. I asked the old lady if this watch was like the one I carried on my person, at the same time showing her Eggert & Son's pocket-chronometer (loaned to me by those parties, of New York), which is an old-fashioned one, of large size, in a heavy double silver case. She had told Too-koo-li-too that it was not so large as this, and she said the same to me. I then drew out from under the took-too furs, where I keep it, a small pocket-chronometer in silver cases (which I have in my possession by the kindness of Augustus H. Ward, of New York). Old Ook-bar-loo said it was like this, of the same size and kind; that is, it was of white (silver) metal. It was not of such metal as my gold pen, though she (Ook-bar-loo) had seen many parts of watches—watches that had been taken to pieces—that were of the same color with my gold pen. Through Too-koo-li-too she said: " When she was at Ok-kee-bee-jee (Pelly Bay), which was in the winter of 1853-4, she saw a woman who had a watch, with chain and key, which she always kept very carefully by her. This mother was mother-in-law of In-nook-poosh-ee-jook [Anm.: Ad-lark], the man who told her (Ook-bar-loo) what she related to me the other day. This mother of In-nook-poosh-ee-jook told her all about where and how she got the watch. She and her husband went to a big tent not very far from Keitchille, and among the frozen mass of human bones and bodies that were lying around in it she saw one Kob-lu-na body that had a bright white (probably silver) chain around the neck. She knew at once what the chain was for, as some of the other Neitchille Innuits had just come into possession of several watches and chains, which she saw. The body of this man was lying on one side, and was half imbedded in solid ice from head to feet. The way the chain was about the neck and running down one side of the body indicated that the watch was beneath it; and therefore, to get at the watch, she found a difficult and disagreeable task before her. Neither she nor her husband had any instrument with them that they would use for any such purpose as was desired; therefore, while the husband was seeking around, in and about the tent, collecting such things as he fancied would best suit him, she procured a heavy sharp stone, and with this chipped away the ice from all round the body till it was released. Continued old mother Oolc-bar-loo, in a truly sorrowful tone of voice: This woman told her that she could never forget the dreadful, fearful feelings she had all the time while engaged doing this; for, besides the tent being filled with frozen corpses—some entire and others mutilated by some of the starving companions, who had cut off much of the flesh with their knives and hatchets and eaten it—this man who had the watch she sought seemed to her to have been the last that died, and his face was just as though he was only asleep. All the while she was at work breaking the ice near the head, especially the ice about the face, she felt very, very bad, and for this reason had to stop several times. She was very careful not to touch any part of the body while pounding with the sharp stone. At last, after having pounded away the ice from around and under the body, her husband helped her to lift it out of its icy beds. Still she was troubled to get the watch from the frozen garments with which the body was completely dressed. Finally, the watch and key and chain were obtained entire; and the woman now keeps them very choice, in commemoration of the terrible feelings she had when getting them from the dead Kob-lu-na [Anm.: white man], whom she dug out of the ice with nothing but a heavy, sharp stone.[7]
[1] Charles F. Hall, Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition Made by Charles F. Hall : His Voyage to Repulse Bay, Sledge Journeys to the Straits of Fury and Hecla and to King William's Land, and Residence among the Eskimos during the Years 1864-69, Cambridge library collection. Polar Exploration, Place of publication not identified /Cambridge: publisher not identified; Cambridge University Press 1879, 594-596.
[2] Kaj Birket-Smith, The Caribou Eskimos : material and social life and their cultural position, [Repr.], Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, New York: AMS Press 1976 [1929. And: Knud Rasmussen, Observations on the intellectual culture of the Caribou Eskimos, [Repr.], Report of the 5th Thule expedition 1921-24, New York: AMS Press 1976 [1930.
[3] Linda Welters und Abby Lillethun, „The Lexicon of Fashion”, in: Fashion History: A Global View, hrsg. von Linda Welters und Abby Lillethun, New York/London: Bloomsbury 2018, 13-29, 16. Ingrid Loschek, Wann ist Mode? Strukturen, Strategien und Innovationen, Berlin: Reimer Verlag 2007, 159-201, 161.
[4] Loschek 2007, 161.
[5] The Times 1854.
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