IDNO

P.86152.PAT

Description

Two rowboats with Greenland Inuit women and children passengers pulled up beside the Isbjørn. All wear a combination of traditional and European clothing, with the majority wearing cloth parkas and caps. Sukarat, a fiddler, is standing on the gunwhale of the ship, and Thomas Paterson is on the deck in the foreground. The deck of the Isbjørn is stacked with supplies and in the background is a line of drying clothes.

Place

N America; Arctic; Greenland; Godhavn

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

15 - 24 July, 1937

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: Same image mounted in James Wordie’s 1937 album with the number and caption:
“Godhavn, July 15 - 24.”
“129. Greenlanders coming aboard. Fiddler (Sukarat) gunwhale - Paterson.”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 3/3/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: J. M. Wordie; H. Carmichael; E. G. Dymond; T. C. Lethbridge, ‘An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937’ in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5. (Nov., 1938), pp. 385-418.
Text on pp. 389-390 includes:
“We left early on July 24 and during a day of mist and fog passed up the Vaigat, aiming to anchor at the western end of Nugssuak Peninsula. ... The Nugssuak Peninsula juts prominently westwards, and appeared to have much the same strategic advantages as Godhavn, there being a small fairly sheltered harbour, near the extreme west point. The approaches are narrow, and it was only with the help of local Greenlanders that we were able to feel our way in and secure the ship by a combination of anchoring and tying up to ring bolts. The harbour lay lengthwise between dipping ledges, and is not much more than a boat harbour, and ours was probably the limit of size of ship which can be accommodated”. [JD 14/2/2007]

Place: In the BFI’s synopses of Wordie’s 1937 film of Greenland, mention is made of footage of “Nugssnag [sic] settlement, eskimoes, a kayak maker, and girls showing off their best boots”. [Reel 1, 96 foot] [Source:
BFI, http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/14564?view=synopsis] [JD 13/2/2007]

P.86084.PAT to P.86583.PAT were found wrapped in the card now numbered C446/1/.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/2/2007]