But what happened after the Inuit found these pocket watches? We know from the catalogue entry that Dr. John Rae traded them back in 1854. The Times wrote on October, 23rd:  “The articles brought home by Dr. Rae had all been worn as ornaments by the Esquimaux, the coins being pierced with holes, so as to be suspended as medals.”  What does that mean, being worn as ornaments? While the author specifies that coins were pierced, we can find the same marks on some pocket watch fragments.  Fifteen years later, Ookbarloo tells Charles Francis Hall the story of Ad-lark, who owned a pocket watch. I will use Hall's spelling for the names just for consistency, while I would like to point out, that Hall had quite a unique way of spelling. Taqulittuq, Halls translator translated the story:  "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...

The  Franklin expedition and the disastrous outcome of it still capture the interest of people around the world. In my master thesis, I analysed the pocket watch fragments from the National Maritime Museum collection. As Franklin and his men over a hundred years ago, I have tried to fill in the blank spots. Not the blank spots in search for the North-West passage, instead I focused on the biography of these intriguing objects and their biography gaps.  As Igor Kopytoff wrote 1986, one must search for breaks in the career of an object. While he was interested in the change between a commodity status and its shifts, other disciplines that work with  Material Culture  used the metaphor of biography to see changes and transformations. At the same time, the object travelled through different hands and spaces at different times. The object itself stands for the interactions of people and their ideas, values and perception. In this blog post, I will argue that there was a c...

While researching my master thesis, A Matter of Time – Franklins Pocket Watches in the Arctic , I came across James Reid's pocket watch's dust cover . From the letters of James Fitzjames we know, that the Erebus` Ice master James Reid was 'rough, intelligent, unpolished, with a broad North-Country accent, but not vulgar, good-humoured and honest-hearted'. And, as I would add, he certainly knew how to make a good impression and act like a gentleman. The dust cover from his pocket watch, now in the National Maritime Museum collection, made of gilt brass, had his name engraved in a cursive script. Most likely, the pocket watch case going with this dust cover was made of gold, adding to the object's material value.  Two pocket watch fragments in the National Maritime Museum`s collection fit not only in material, but also in size to the dust cover. A plate from the interior of a watch, AAA 2075, made of gilt brass, and a golden pocket watch case, AAA2076, may have belong...