Inuit Art History

TIMELINE

Under construction.
9000 BC	Ice Age came to an end. Arctic climate warmed.
7000 BC	Dogsleds used by Palaeo-Eskimo in northern Siberia?
3000 BC	The Denbigh culture of western and northern Alaska dates as far back as this.
2500 BC	Migration Theory: Paleao-Eskimos migrating across Arctic North America. (in McGhee, Robert) (
2200 - 1500 BC	Stable northern climate.
2000 BC	Umingmak Palaeo-Eskimo site on Banks Island.
c.1700 BC	Oldest known Early Palaeo-Eskimo portrait of a human, an ivory maskette found on Devon Island.
1800 BC	Palaeo-Eskimos occupied most Arctic regions. Independence culture musk-ox hunters of the extreme Arctic regions.
2000 BC - 1 AD	Worldwide environmental change. In the north: the first chill. Cooler summers.
2000 BC	Cooler conditions set in North.
500 - 1 BC	Early Dorset Tyara maskette found at Hudson Strait.
1 - 1500	Dorset culture.
1 - 600 AD	Middle Dorset culture: Igloolik flying bear carving.
500s AD	Legend: Irish monks in currachs sailed west and north?
800s AD	Eric the Red and 1500 Icelanders travelled to Greenland's southwest coast? The Norse landed in Labrador before 1000 AD and attempted to colonize along the coasts of Ungava, Baffin Island and Labrador. They were the first Europeans to reach the Canadian Arctic. (Hessell 1998:7) )
650 - 1250 AD	Mediaeval Warm Period in Arctic North America.(McGhee 1997).
600 - 1300 AD	Late Dorset culture, wand found on Bathurst Island.
1100 - 1700 AD	Thule culture: bow-drill handle found near Arctic Bay, Baffin Island; swimming bird and birdwoman figurines found in the Eastern Arctic. (Illustration Hessel 1998:17)
c.1650 - 1840 AD	Little Ice Age forced the Thule to break up into small, nomadic groups.
1576	?Martin Frobisher, an uneducated pirate-mariner attempted to find the Northwest Passage. He encountered Inuit on Resolution Island. Five sailors jumped ship and became part of Inuit mythology. The homesick sailors tired of their adventure attempted to leave in a small vessel and vanished. Frobisher brought an unwilling Inuk to England. On his next trip to Baffin Island an Inuit hunter shot Frobisher in the buttocks with an arrow after Frobisher had lost a wrestling match?
1585	John Davis voyaged up Davis Strait.
1602	Henry Hudson travelled to the whaling grounds of Spitsbergen which became a source of great wealth to the British.
1616	Robert Bylot and William Baffin sailed to Hudson Bay.
1670	Hudson's Bay Company newly formed is granted trade rights over all territory draining into Hudson Bay. The fur trade develops.
1749	The first trading was established at Richmond Gulf.
c. 1749	Trade of small stone carvings. The HBC began trading glass beads to the Caribou Inuit in the 18th century. Women used them to decorate parkas. Ivory cribbage boards with skrimshaw engravings (like the whalers)were the most popular. (Hessel 1998:24)
1750s	Moravian missionaries arrived in Labrador. (Hessell 1998:8)
1771	Moravian missionaries settled in Nain in northern Labrador heralding the beginning of the Historic Period. Well-crafted miniature carvings were traded with missionaries, whalers, explorers... (1770s - 1940s). The missionaries are said to have introduced the art of basketry to the Inuit. (Watt 1980:13)
1771	Samuel Hearne of the HBC reached the Arctic coast at Coppermine.
1789	Alexander Mackenzie follows Mackenzie River to Beaufort Sea.
1822	William Parry's expedition to Igloolik.
1833	Captain George Back made the first descent of the Back River.
1850s - 1950s	Christian missionaries spread throughout Arctic.
1860 - 1915	Second wave of contact. Whaling in Hudson Bay with foreign whalers: Scottish, American particularly in the Roes Welcome Sound.
1873	North-West Mounted Police.
1896?	Reverend Edmund Peck introduced syllabics as a written form of Inuktitut. His system was adapted from Reverend Evan's syllabic system adopted by the Cree.
1883-4	Anthropologist Franz Boas, studies Inuit culture, Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island.
1893	Chicago World's Fair: There was an ethnographic exhibit including "Esquimaux snapping whips and in their kayaks..."
1900	Scottish mine owners open a mica and graphite mine near Lake Harbour and employed Inuit miners.
1901	Film clip of Inuit games and dogsleds performing at the Buffalo Exposition.
1903	Northwest Mounted Police (RCMP) detachments set up in Canadian Arctic.
1903-6	Roald Amundsen completes Northwest Passage?
1905	Invention of plastic marks the end of the exploitation of the baleen whale by American and European whalers. The declining market for whale oil and baleen led to the aggressive development of the white fox fur trade by the HBC.
1906	The Canadian Handicrafts Guild was founded. This national organisation had its headquarters in Montreal.
1909	Admiral Robert Peary and Matthew ... reach North Pole.
1909	Reveillon Freres, Paris established a fur trading post at Inukjuak. The HBC arrived in 1920. The HBC purchased the Reveillon Freres in 1930s.
1909	Anglican mission established at Lake Harbour.
1911	First permanent trading post in south Baffin was at Lake Harbour, in Keewatin it was at Chesterfield Inlet.
1913	Cape Dorset's trading post was established.
1913 _ 1918	Canadian Arctic Expedition: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Diamond Jenness.
1930s	Period of transition between the whaling period and the advent of trading posts.
1921 - 1924	Danish explorer, Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition across the Canadian Arctic. For some remote groups of Inuit, he represented the first white contact.
1916 - 1926	HBC operated a trading post at Okpiktooyuk near present day Baker Lake.
1926 - 1927	Anglican and Catholic Missions open in Baker Lake.
1922	Nanook of the North:First documentary..
1924	Anthropologist Diamond Jenness received tiny ivory artifacts from Cape Dorset area. With this archaeological evidence the existence of the Dorset culture (800 BC - ) was established.
c. 1930	Bears teeth used as counters.
1930	Canadian Handicrafts Guild organized an exhibition of Eskimo Arts and Crafts at the McCord Museum in Montreal. The exhibition attracted the attention of the New York Times. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1938	Roman Catholic mission established at Cape Dorset.
1930s	Poor hunting years in the North led to deprivation among the Inuit. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1939	The Indian committee of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild was changed to Indian and Eskimo Committee to include the encouragement of Inuit work. Committee members included Alice Whitehall, Dr. Diamond Jenness. The Inuit collection at that time included miniature baskets, a kerosene lamp, fine fur work, walrus tusk ivories including an altar frontal made by the women of Pangnirtung.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1939	The Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Inuit were entitled to the same health, education and social services as the Indians were granted in the 1876 Indian Act. (Hessel 1998:190)
1939	The Canadian Handicrafts Guild exhibited Bishop Fleming's Inuit art collection.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1940	It was noted in the minutes of the meeting of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild that the art of basketry was practiced in a section of the Ungava region. Basket making had been introduced there c. 1740 by the Moravian missionaries. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1940s	RCMP conducted census of Inuit populations. They assigned the infamous identification numbering system using discs. These disc numbers were dropped during the "Operation Surname" in the 1960s.
1940 -2	RCMP schooner St. Roch completed Northwest Passage from west to east?
1940 -2	Peter Pitseolak (1902 - 1973)experimented with watercolours and collage dressing a magazine image of Clark Gable with Inuit fur clothing. He would go on to become a skilled photographer. (Hessel 1998:25)
1940 - 45	Guild activities were cut back during WWII. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1946	Canadian Army's Arctic military exercise "Operation Muskox" at Baker Lake. Major Cleghorn noted the high quality of carvings in the Keewatin area and suggested this potential developed.
1947	In connection with Operation Muskox, a weather station was established in Baker Lake.
1947	M.V. Nascopie sinks off Cape Dorset.
1940s	Canadian government assumed responsibility for Inuit welfare in the late 1940s. (Hessel 1998:8)
1947	The Guild was asked to encourage Inuit in the Ungava region to continue carving as a much needed source of additional income. Hunting was poor, the price of fur was down and the Inuit had proven their gift for carving. The Guild emphasized the need to maintain the artist's individuality and independence. Aone page letter was sent to northern communities asking them to carve ivory models, brooches, pendants... (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1947	James Houston from Grandmère visited Port Harrison.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1949 - 1953	Early years of contemporary period of Inuit art.
1949	The Guild sponsored James Houston's trip to Povungnitok region in order for him to purchase Inuit arts and crafts.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1949	Canadian Handicraft Guild of Montreal sale of Inuit art on Peel Street. Guild members C. J. G. Molson (Quebec branch)and Alice Whitehall encouraged James Houston to return north to buy more carvings.
1940s - 50s	Polio in the North.
1950	Cape Dorset gets a one-room school.
1950	A nursing station built at Baker Lake.
1950s	Puvirnituq developed around a HBC post.
1951	Anglican church is built in Cape Dorset.
1952	Doug Wilkinson produced Land of the Long Day about Joseph Idlout from Pond Inlet, a respected hunter and camp leader. The 1967 two dollar bill depicted a still from the film with Idlout.
1950s	Slump in fox fur trade.
1950s	In Rankin Inlet some Inuit employed by nickel mine.
1952	Canadian government promotes Inuit art. Akeeaktashuk carvings of Hunter, Bear...
1952	Salluit began its art project and by 1955 70% of the adult population were carving (1998 Hessel).
1955	Alma and James Houston settle in Cape Dorset and are active in encouraging carving and handicrafts.
1955	DEW Line was built.
1957 - 58	Widespread starvation in the Keewatin area. Back River camps move into Baker Lake.
1957	A federal dayschool opened at Baker Lake. Pre-fabricated subsidized government housing constructed from the mid-1950s. Northern Services Officer Doug Wilkinson encouraged the development of the arts and crafts industry in Baker Lake.
1958	James Houston studies printmaking in Japan.
1958	The Povungnitok Sculptors' Society formed in 1958 and became the Povungnituk's Co-operative in 1960. (Myers, M. )
1959	West Baffin Cooperative first print collection printed in 1959 was shown at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1960.
1960s	Jorgen Meldgaard excavated Palaeo-Eskimo occupations at Igloolik.
1961	Bernard Saladin d'Anglure was shown petroglyphs Dorset sites of the coast of Nunavik.
1961	West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative is incorporated.
1963	Rankin Inlet ceramics project introduced.
1960s	The Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Civilization (the National Museum of Man) started to collect, research and exhibit Inuit art.
1964	The first 'matchbox" houses are brought to Cape Dorset. Cape Dorset gets its first telephones.
1969	The S.S.Manhattan, an American icebreaker-tanker made the $40 million northwest passage through Canadian Arctic waters .
1970	Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC) a national political association, formed by Inuit students living in the south. Inuit politics was born. Before the 1970s the co-op was the only organized voice Inuit had. (Myers 1980:139)
1970	Baker Lake's first print collection published. This was the year after the arrival of southern artists Sheila and Jack Butler. Sanavik Co-operative is incorporated in 1971.
1971	"Arctic Quebec cooperatives combined with the community councils to begin negotiating a form of regional government within the province of Quebec."(Myers 1980:143)
1971	Inuit sculpture showcased in international exhibition, Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic(Canadian Eskimo Arts Council).
1970s	Igloolik artists begin to produce art in quantities in 1970s.
1973 - 1988	Pangnirtung printmaking co-op is established as a territorial government sponsored project.
1976	The annual Cape Dorset print collection included Pudlo Pudlat's controversial Airplane.
1977	Inuit prints showcased in international exhibition, The Inuit Print/L'estampe Inuit(National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada).
1977	Inuit Circumpolar Conference adopted Inuit as the designation for all Eskimos, regardless of local usages. (1996)Arctic Perspectives.
1977	Baker Lake print shop, its drawing archives and 1977 print collection are destroyed by fire.
1980	"Inuit arts and crafts generated five million dollars in personal income for Inuit." (Myers 1980:141)
1980	The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre acquired over 400 drawings dating from the 1960s to the 1990s by Canadian Inuit artists.
1980s	The National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario begin to collect, research and exhibit Inuit art.
1983	Economy of the North: Until 1983 cash came from seal skins.
1987	The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre presented its touring exhibition Contemporary Inuit Drawings, the first survey exhibition of drawings by Inuit artists.
1989	First Inuit art exhibition in the National Gallery of Canada's new building: Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing. Pudlo Pudlat attends opening.
1992	Pangnirtung's Uqqurmiut Inuit Artists Association opens its weave shop, built a new print shop and began releasing collections.
1994	Baker Lake Art Symposium, Baker Lake which included the opening of the exhibition Qamanittuaq: Where the River Widens.
1998	First Inuit art history survey textbook published Hessel, Ingo. Inuit Art. He described how more than 4,000 inuit have made over one million works since the 1940s. (Hessel ix) 35,000 Inuit live in about 50 small communities in the North. (Hessel 1998:9)
1999	April 1, Nunavut