Ancillary Salon & Lobby Exhibitions
NOVA TUSKHUT & Nancy Columbia and the Arctic Beyond
We welcome you to visit the Nova Tuskhut, an Arctic Trading Post complete with a mini diorama of the tundra, polar artifacts including snowshoes from the Peary Expedition, and the flying goggles of an Arctic Bush-Pilot.
The debut of the Nova Tuskhut accompanied a previous lobby exhibit, Nancy Columbia and the Arctic Beyond. Nancy Columbia, the "Most Beautiful Eskimo that Ever Lived!" Columbia, was born at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and named the Queen of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Esquimaux Village in 1909. Columbia was also the first Inuit to write and star in a film in 1911, entitled The Way of the Eskimo. The exhibit featured stereoviews, photographs, and ephemera from several World's Fairs, highlighting the success and persistence of "Esquimaux Villages" and Arctic obsession in the 19th to 20th centuries.
The Nova Tuskhut and the Nancy Columbia Exhibit feature objects from the collection of Kenn Harper, Dr. Russell Potter and other arctic collectors. These include the snow shoes used by the explorer Samuel J. Entrikin (1862-1942) who served as second-in-command during the 1893-95 Arctic expedition under Admiral Robert Peary to North Greenland. Limited edition Nova Tuskhut postcards can be purchased and sent from the Trading Post's Postal Station.
On August 5th of 2018, we bade adieu to Nancy Columbia and the Arctic Beyond - the exhibit that accompanied the late Effulgence of the North since 2014. These archival photographs and touristic artifacts will take the return journey back to the safe hands of Arctic historians, including Dr. Russell Potter and Kenn Harper, to make way for a new exhibit on Shengjing Panorama and the phenomenon of the Chinese panorama.