An Inuit Statuette as the Entrance Ticket to the Zoo

Inuit carving of a polar bear from the collections of the National Museum—Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures

We selected the model for this small souvenir together with the staff of the Náprstek Museum. In the end, we decided on a small polar bear figurine, which was once carved from a walrus tusk by the Labrador Inuit, and we had a thousand copies of it made on a 3D printer.

Although this Inuit carving is only 33 millimetres long and 10 millimetres high and is not particularly beautiful, in addition to its authenticity and ethnographic value, it is interesting for its connection to the remarkable story of a man who brought it to Czechoslovakia and ultimately to the Náprstek Museum: Jiří Vilém Jaeger.

Jiří Jaeger (1895–1975), born in Turnov, first graduated from high school and then studied at a business school. When he was looking for a job shortly before the outbreak of World War I, he got an opportunity to work for the Moravian Brethren mission, which spread Christianity among the Inuit. He took advantage of it and travelled to Labrador in June 1914. There, for the Moravian Brethren—among whom, however, there was not a single Czech or Moravian until his arrival—he performed activities that we would today summarize under the words “logistics and trade”. In addition to the warehouse, he was in charge of receiving goods from Europe and distributing them to mission stations, as well as selling them to the Inuit, from whom he in turn bought fish and furs; he also arranged the transport of mail between individual stations. Besides that, he was also very interested in the life of the “Eskimos”. He participated in hunting and fishing expeditions with them, learned about their customs, took drawings and photographs and created his collection. He stayed in Labrador until the Spanish flu epidemic forced him to return home in 1919.

Jiří Jaeger. Photo from the collections of the National Museum—Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures

Jiří Jaeger wrote a book Šest let mezi Eskymáky (Six Years Among the Eskimos) about his stay in the Arctic, published for the first time in 1963 and again eight years later. Part of his collections gradually reached the Náprstek Museum long after his death. In addition to 209 of his slides and 75 negatives, many different objects that he acquired from the Inuit are kept there: winter clothing and footwear, practical items such as storage pockets or harpoon tips, and last but not least, carvings made of stone, wood and walrus tusks. One of them is a small figurine of a polar bear, which we have chosen for the “cornerstone” of our Arctic Exhibit.

And by the way: each of the thousand copies of this Inuit carving will contain a chip that will serve as a ticket to our zoo.