Artist/Maker
Comer, George
Vessel
Era (Schooner)
Date1900-1905
MediumSilver Gelatin Print; Mounted
Object number1980.37
Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum
DescriptionOverview: The Comer Collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum consists of approximately 200 photographs taken by Captain George Comer (1858-1937) during whaling voyages to the Hudson Bay between 1900 and 1905. The majority of the photographs document Aivilingmiut and Qaernermiut inuit people and culture; other subjects include the whaling schooner Era and her crew, whale processing, and the flora and fauna of the Hudson Bay.Context: George Comer made 14 Arctic voyages between 1875 and 1919. While his primary task during these expeditions was to hunt whales and seals and trade with the natives of the Hudson Bay, Comer had a deep interest in documenting the culture and customs of the people he encountered. Comer's photographs, journals, and sound recordings, along with extensive collections of artifacts he made at the request of the American Museum of Natural History, provide important ethnographic documentation of the peoples of the Hudson Bay.
George Comer was born in Quebec in 1858 and moved to Connecticut as a child. In 1875, he made his first whaling voyage on the New London bark Nile. Twenty years later, Comer was made master of the New Bedford whaling schooner Era, on which he sailed until 1905. From 1907 until 1912, when he made his last whaling voyage, Comer was master of the Stamford, Connecticut whaling schooner A. T. Gifford. Comer was a financially successful whaler and trader, but his documentation of Eskimo culture has a much greater lasting value.
Comer first took photographs in the Arctic in 1893, but the vast majority of surviving photos was taken after 1900. Images in the Comer Collection date from 1900 to 1905, when Comer was master of the Era. In 1897, Comer became acquainted with Franz Boas, now considered to be the father of modern American anthropology. Boas taught Comer how to collect and document information on the Eskimos; this knowledge is reflected in Comer's photographs. Unlike most other whalers who photographed native peoples, Comer consciously tried to preserve the context of the customs, objects, and people he photographed. Although he took many photos in a "studio" on board the Era, he did not pose individuals using tools or behaving in ways foreign to their traditions.
In addition to taking photographs, Comer took copious notes on his experiences, the peoples with whom he interacted, and the natural history of the Hudson Bay. In 1984, Comer's journal from the 1903-1905 voyage was published as An Arctic Whaling Diary, edited by W. Gillies Ross. Comer was commissioned by the American Natural History Museum to collect artifacts from the Hudson Bay region. He made plaster cast "life masks" of the faces and hands of Eskimos and used a graphophone to record Eskimo songs and stories. Comer also conducted surveys and created charts of previously unmapped areas. After Comer's whaling career ended, he continued sailing, both as a member of the U.S. Navy and a member of Arctic exploring expeditions. He served as a representative in the Connecticut legislature before his death on April 27, 1937.
Arctic Box # 4.A. COMER
General contents: Including:
Native Portraits
NativeTrade
Hunting/Whaling/Sealing preparation
Building Snow Houses
Packing in "Era"
Group Ia: Black mat: Shoveling Snow, Building Snow Houses
1980.37. 57.a,b
1980.37.58.a,b
1980.37.59.a,b
1980.37.15.a
1980.37.16.a,b
Group Ib: Black mat: Banking in "Era", Hauling Ice
1980.37.17
1980.37.18.a,b
1980.37.172.a,b
1980.37.20.a,b
1980.37.73.a,b
1980.37.25.a,b
1980.37.29
1980.37.30.a,b
1980.37.32.1.a,b
Group II: Black mat: Building Snow Houses,* Pictures relating to hunting, whaling/sealing, etc.
1980.37.81.a,b
1980.37.82.a,b
1980.37.83.a,b
1980.37.84
1980.37.85.a,b
1980.37.88.a,b
1980.37.89.a,b
1980.37.90.a,b
1980.37.93.a,b
1980.37.94.a,b
1980.37.95
1980.37.96.a,b
1980.37.97: Narwhal
*Snow houses in group II are clearly part of this sequence
Group III: Black mat: Traders
1980.37.61.a,b
1980.37.62
1980.37.63.a,b
1980.37.64.a,b
1980.37.65.a,b: Methods of drying out skins
Group IV: Miscellaneous, no mat:
1980.37:204: wooden house
1980.37.211/220: Native woman with fur (exterior, with wooden house and snow lean-to in background)
1980.37.210: Native woman outside
1980.37.202: men and igloos
1980.37.199.a,b: igloos
1980.37.203: dogs and igloos
1980.37.218: dogs and igloos
1980.37.216: group of Natives outside
1980.37.217: Natives in kayaks
1980.37.22.2.a,b: dog sleds
1980.37.20.c: crew in fur, hauling ice
1980.37.189: men in whaleboats
1980.37.200: Native boy in whaleboat
1980.37.53: "Era" frozen in
1980.37.72: "Era" frozen in 1980.37.201.a,b:"Era" frozen in 1980.37.197: "Era" frozen in
Total in box: 79
In Rediscovery but not box: 1980.37.60
1980.37.15.b
Arctic Box # 4.B. COMER
Group I: snow house interior, portraits of families, portraits of Native children on ship. 4x5 black mat
1980.37.21.a,b
1980.37.22.1.a,b
1980.37.178.a,b
1980.37.35.a,b,c
1980.37.36.a,b
1980.37.37.a,b
1980.37.38.a,b
1980.37.40.a,b
1980.37.42.a,b
1980.37.43
1980.37.44.1.a,b
1980.37.46.a,b: playing muegulustso
1980.37.48.a,b
1980.37.47: Eskimo children on "Era"
1980.37.175.a,b: Shaman (detail of garment) on "Era"
1980.37.101.a,b,c: Minnie, a Native woman, on "Era" deck
1980.37.107.a,b: small boy on "Era" deck
Group II: Portraits on "Era"/"studio"; group portrait in "Era" cabin; Interior of snow house, group pictures or activities (Shaman/ "muegulustso" game)
1980.37.31
1980.37.32.a
1980.37.33
1980.37.34
1980.37.39.b
1980.37.214
1980.37.213
1980.37.212
1980.37.209
1980.37.207.a,b
1980.37.208
1980.37.45
1980.37.26.a,b,c: Natives by woods stove in "Era" cabin (watching something?)
1980.37.23.1.a,b
1980.37.24
1980.37.41
1980.37.28.1.a,b
1980.37.215
1980.37.219
Total in box: 58
Arctic Box # 4.C. COMER
General contents. Miscellaneous format, Miscellaneous subject matter
Group I: Black mat 4x6: various scenes depicting baleen harvest; "Era" on ice
1980.37.1
1980.37.2.a,b
1980.37.3.a,b
1980.37.4
1980.37.5.a,b
1980.37.6
1980.37.7
1980.37.8
1980.37.13
1980.37.14.a,b
Group II: Black mat 4x6: landscapes; "Era" from shore; "trying out?"
1980.37.102
1980.37.105
1980.37.166.a,b
1980.37.167.a,b
1980.37.168.a,b
1980.37.169
Group III: Miscellaneous 5x7 reprints:
1980.37.182.a*,b,c: group shot of crew in fur suits (.182c, .188b are mounted on either side of 8x10 mat)
1980.37.188.a,b: group crew/whaleboat/Era
1980.37.191: whale boats being pulled on sleds by dogs
1980.37.193: Native ice fishing
1980.37.196 Native ice fishing
1980.37.186: group of Natives in front of whale boats (winterized)
1980.37.187: group of Natives in front of whale boats (winterized)
1980.37.177: group portrait Natives in ice house
1980.37.185: action shot, Natives dancing in ice house
1980.37.184: Native group portrait in ship's "studio"
1980.37.183*: Native group portrait in ship's "studio"
1980.37.192: Display of Native carvings (curios)
Group IV: Miscellaneous format prints:
1980.37.181: Schooner "Era" of NB (in NB?) 3.75x4.75 print mounted on decorated white 4x6.5 mat
1980.37.190: Cap't Comer at the helm with mates? White mat
1980.37.195: Shot of packing in bow of "Era"
1980.37.194: Scene of dogsled preparation, 2.25x6.75 print
1980.37.206: Exterior portrait of small Eskimo child, 3x1.5
1980.37.198.a,b: Crew aboard "Era" working windlass under supervision of mate
1980.37.205: Grave Marker for WP Maynes, Died April 6? 1904? Age 56 Years, Seaman, Schooner "Era"
1980.37.5.c: Lip on deck, 8x10 print
1980.37.222: Dogsled, lodging, "Era" in background, 5x7 print mounted on 8x10 mat
1980.37.221: Photo Album
Total in box: 49
In Rediscovery but not box: 1980.37.21.1
*No Record in RediscoveryLabel TextGeorge Comer (1855–1938) was a whaling and sealing ship master who sailed vessels from New London, Connecticut, and New Bedford to the Antarctic three times and the Arctic fourteen times between 1875 and 1919. Comer was tapped by the American Museum of Natural History to document the flora and fauna of the region, as well as Indigenous cultures. Trained by the US anthropologist Franz Boas, he took notes on Native life—especially across the Hudson Bay in Inuit Nunangat—photographed the region and its people, and collected artifacts and plant and animal specimens, which he then donated to the American Museum of Natural History of New York. He made over three hundred plaster casts of Native Alaskan faces, collected the skins of Arctic animals and birds, gathered geological specimens, bird’s eggs, and other interesting specimens, and recorded geographical and topographical information. For his efforts, he was made a fellow of the council of the American Geographical Society, demonstrating how power and prestige were tied to exploration and exploitation.
Like many whalers and Arctic explorers, Comer fathered children with at least two Native women and had what some referred to as a “Native wife.” Niviatsianaq was an Aivilik woman who traveled with Comer in the early 1900s. We can never know the dynamics that defined such relationships. Relationships between Euro-American men and Native women were complicated by different cultural expectations about sex and gender, perceptions of power and trade, and individual struggles under settler colonialism. These perpetuated heteropatriarchal values and race-based sexism that supported the sexualization of Native women as “available.” One photograph in the collection from 1886 pictures Qayisaaq and her unknown child on a whaleship (fig. 1.19). Qayisaaq was kidnapped and taken north on a whaleship, where she gave birth to a child in Barrow and then was taken to Point Hope. The history of victimization of Native women remains salient, most notably in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement, which uses a red handprint over the mouth to symbolize the silencing of Native women and inaction of authorities to address the crisis.
The museum holds approximately two hundred photographs taken by Comer during whaling voyages to the Hudson Bay between 1900 and 1905, when Comer was master of the Era. Images of a man building a snow house in Inuit Nunangat demonstrate an interest in Indigenous life. A large group are frontal standing portraits of individuals in a makeshift studio on the Schooner Era, Inuit Nunangat (Hudson Bay). These should be understood within the context of contemporaneous ethnographic photography (like Edward Curtis) and under the umbrella of settler colonialism and cultural extraction. Others picture sensitive cultural practices and knowledge that should not be made available to the public. Some depict religious practices and show shaman dressed in regalia. As many scholars have shown photography, especially in the context of “scientific” or documentary projects like Comer’s, were deeply extractive and predicated on power imbalances and a subject-object relationship that often undermined the humanity of the subjects pictured.ProvenanceThese photographs picture people across Inuit Nunaat taken during periods of intense colonial pressure and extractive, violent encounter (violence in many forms). NBWM is considering how we should address culturally sensitive materials like these in the collection. Our work in reckoning with these collections (and others like them), their histories and legacies with descendant communities, and our responsibilities toward researchers is ongoing. We strive to fulfill our responsibility, to be sensitive to content, traditional knowledge, and our role as stewards of these items, while ensuring that their use does not perpetuate colonial patterns of oppression. If you have a comment, please contact: curatorial@whalingmuseum.org
On View
Not on view
1725-1960
Comer, George
1745-1925
Era (Schooner)
