BRUNSWICK

Two new exhibits are now on display at Bowdoin College’s Peary Macmillan Arctic Museum. “Defying the Ice: Shipwreck and Rescue of the Karluk” and “Power of Flight: Visions of Birds in Innuit Art” both represent not-so-well-known corners of Arctic heritage and history, while connecting with present-day issues as well.

“The Power of Flight” uses contemporary and historic Innuit sculptures and prints to explore the various ways we think about birds, which were front in center in Innuit culture for the food, clothing and mythology they provided.

“There was a belief that originally humans and animals could transition at will,” said Susan Kaplan, director of the museum and professor of anthropology at the college. “A belief that they could fly. There are countless references to that in Innuit art. In present day the Innuit rely on planes to deliver many of their goods. What this exhibit really does is show you the sense of flight as being something that is both in the past and contemporary.”

“The Power of Flight” is on display until March 2017.

“Defying the Ice” chronicles the journey and eventual sinking of the vessel Karluk in the Arctic Ocean, and the subsequent walk across the ice to Wrangell Island and down the coast of Siberia in search for rescue. The Karluk’s mission was to claim new Canadian land in the Arctic.

“The ship became trapped in heavy ice flows north of Alaska and drifted from August of 1913 to January of 1914,” said Kaplan.

The ship’s captain, Robert A. Bartlet, charted the drift until the ship broke apart in January northeast of Siberia, leaving Bartlett and is crew in an undesirable “shipwreck camp” atop the seemingly endless ice floes.

“On display is the actual chart that Bartlett charted the Karluk’s drift upon,” said Kaplan. “The chart came to us a year ago in a whole series of miscellaneous Bartlett papers. He describes in his journal that just before the Karluk went down, he grabbed all of his charts.”

The group of survivors trekked hundreds of miles across the ice to Wrangell Island, where Bartlett and an Innuit guide left the group and embarked on a six-week journey down the Siberian coast to find help. They eventually chartered a ship across the Bering Sea back to Alaska, where they were able to telegraph for help and rescue the remainder of the survivors on Wrangell Island.

“A few months before the exhibit went up, we received a box that contained more Bartlett materials, including his Karluk journal,” said Kaplan.

The journal is on display in original form as well as a more legible version that Bartlett typed up after rescue. The exhibit also includes photographs and film footage from early in the journey that are in surprisingly good shape.

“One has the sense that over the past 100 years these pieces have been sitting quietly, waiting to be heard,” said Kaplan. “So they shook themselves to the surface to have a reunion in our showroom.”

And yet, even after 100 years, we can learn from the Karluk’s message.

“The men aboard the Karluk were looking to claim land and exploit resources,” said Kaplan, who is leaving for North Labrador in a week to study the melting permafrost there. “In that respect, nothing has really changed.”

“Defying the Ice” is on display until Dec. 4.

To learn more, visit bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/.

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