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Hubbard Hall foyerAs the culmination of a summer working intensively with the museum’s collection, we challenged student interns Chapman Odlum ’22 and Alex Spear ’24 with developing an exhibit focusing on the playful side of life in the North. Fun and Games in the Arctic is their look at the ancient and modern games enjoyed by Inuit children and adults.
In the Arctic, games often incorporate skills such as strength, agility, endurance, and dexterity used by people who make a living from the land and sea. Other games are just plain fun! Today, Inuit play traditional games as well as some brought to the Arctic by Western explorers, whalers, missionaries, and traders, including card games, cribbage, and ice hockey.Selected Works
![Inuit men playing rugby.](/arctic-museum/img/3000.32.501_sized.jpg)
Donald B. MacMillan, Rugby at Umanak, NW Greenland, 1913-1917. Digital print from gelatin silver glass lantern slide. Gift of Donald and Miriam MacMillan.
![Hands holding string playing string games.](/arctic-museum/img/3000.32.507.jpg)
![Engraved cribbage board.](/arctic-museum/img/2019.19.114_1.jpg)
Unidentified Iñupiat artist, Engraved Cribbage Board, Alaska, early 20th century. Walrus ivory and pigment. Gift of Barbara Lipton.
![Inuit doll in skin parka.](/arctic-museum/img/1987.34.2_sm.jpg)
Unidentified Inuit artist, Doll, Woman in Skin Parka, Brewster Point, Nunavut, before 1937. Wood, sealskin, and glass beads. Gift of John H. Halford.