atlas

Fifth Thule Expedition Atlas

This atlas is from the collection Interactive Atlases

Fifth Thule Expedition Atlas

Between 1921 and 1924, a Danish anthropological expedition led by the Inuktitut speaking anthropologist Knud Rasmussen completed the first comprehensive recording of traditional Inuit societies in Canada. The Fifth Thule Expedition collected vast amounts of Inuit knowledge in the form of oral traditions, traditional place names, linguistic information, Inuit drawn maps, photographs, and ethnographic objects. A select amount of this information was published in a series of scientific reports. A network of Danish institutions, including the National Museum of Denmark, currently cares for the ethnographic objects, field notes and associated records from the expedition. We created this Atlas as a way to make invaluable Inuit knowledge accessible to the wider public, including Inuit whose ancestors were initially visited by the Expedition. It is our hope that this information can be used to both educate about the past, and revitalize important cultural traditions and knowledge.