North to the Arctic: A new Scottish view of Inuit Technology 1779-1939

The Arctic collection in the National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (NMS), includes some of the earliest collected ethnographic material available but, despite its obvious significance, it has never been fully analysed. This proposed project seeks to address this issue by carrying out an audit of the collection and researching related archival material to achieve a better picture of the collection's formation and significance, both within the museum itself and within the wider academic field. It aims to shed light on the collection's formation, form an under-standing of attitudes to Inuit culture during the period of collection and curation, and to clarify and investigate the connection with the Arctic Research Institute's collection. Future exhibitions encompassing the Arctic collections will benefit greatly from this research, and it is my hope that much of the information will also be made available to the public through the online collections database.