Das Eskimobaby

In the annals of real and purported "Eskimos" on screen, there may well be no stranger depiction than that given by Asta Nielsen in Heinz Schall's 1916 film, Das Eskimobaby. Neilsen, known for her ability to delivery quirky performances, outdoes herself here as a Greelandic Eskimo, "Ivigtut," suddenly transported from her native land to Berlin, where the explorer who brought her there treats her as some exotic specimen. It's a riff on the old "civilizing the native" trope that had already become a movie staple, but Nielsen's furious resistance to civilization and all it represents makes for some manic scenes. She doesn't understand mirrors (of course) is repulsed by beards, beds, and western clothing, and refuses to shed her fur pants for a formal gathering. The film survives, and has been released by Edition Filmmuseum as part of their Four films with Asta Nielsen.

A Girl and her Dog, 30 Years Later

When I posted the image of Labradorean Inuit celebrity Nancy Columbia and her dog at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, the post got quite a lot of views. Miss Columbia was indeed, as my friend Kenn Harper has aptly said, the "most famous Inuk in the world," the star of stage and screen (she wrote and appeared in "The Way of the Eskimo," produced by Selig Polyscope in 1911). But by the time this photo was taken sometime in the 1930's she'd married, had a daughter, and retired almost completely from public appearances; indeed, this may have been her last. By this time, she was living in the Santa Monica area in Los Angeles, and the photos above -- staged on a backdrop with a little "snow" on it -- appears to have come from some dog show; it's part of a sequence of dog show photos on glass plates that were part of the Security Pacific Bank Collection, and which are today -- happily -- available to the public via the digital photo collections of the Los Angeles Public Library, where I was able to help them identify the photo's subject in 2010. 

A Girl and Her Dog

A girl and her dog -- an all-American family moment -- except that this was Nancy Columbia, the most famous Inuit girl of her day. This stereoview was taken at the "Esquimaux Village" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where Nancy and her family were appearing. Nancy had, in fact, been born at a world's fair -- the 1893 Columbian Exposition  -- and would go on to be a fixture at more than twenty major fairs in the United States, France, Germany, and Spain, as well as appearing in a dozen early silent films, for one of which -- 1911's "The Way of the Eskimo"-- she wrote the scenario (the equivalent of a screenplay for a sound picture). You can read more about Nancy here, and here, and here.

Another Eskimo advert from 1904

Lest one assume that, in 1904, all images of Inuit or "Eskimos" in advertisements were negative, I present this one for Eskay's Food, a popular solid food for babies. It's based on a photograph of Esther Eneutseak and her son Norman (the text mistakenly uses just the surname for the baby). They had, as the ad states, been part of an "Eskimo Village" at the Louisiana Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis, where Eskay's had a promotional presence.

Racism for Breakfast

Of all the prejudices about Inuit people, the notion that somehow their food is inferior because it is not cooked is perhaps the oldest and most pernicious. Indeed, it was once believed that the word "Eskimo"itself meant "eater of raw meat: in the Algonkian language (this has since been questioned). This advert goes further, suggesting that "energy" spent on digestion would reduce the value of the food, and make those who ate it lethargic and "dull" when compared to those who ate supposedly more advanced, cooked, or "pre-digested" foods.  I hasten to add that this ad, which dates from c. 1904, does not reflect on the current cereal of that name or its manufacturers!

Eskimos in New York, 1862

Hall Papers, Smithsonian Institution

Most people today remember P.T. Barnum as a name associated with the Barnum & Bailey/Ringling Brothers Circus --but in his heyday he was primarily a showman of curiosities, freaks, and human wonders. He introduced the midget "Tiny Tim" to the world, and later "Commodore Nutt" (as seen above); displayed an elderly woman claimed to be George Washington's nurse, and arranged the phenomenally successful singing tour of Jenny Lind. He operated, in New York City, a year-round flagship attraction known as "Barnum's American Museum," and it was here in 1862 that he displayed three Inuit, brought to America by the explorer Charles Francis Hall. These were Tookoolito (known as "Hannah"), Ebierbing (known as "Joe") and their infant child Tarralikitaq ("Butterfly"). Hannah and Joe had served as Hall's translator and guide, and continued to do so throughout his career until his death in northwestern Greenland in 1871.