Ivory was and is still an important part
of Inuit culture.
This contemporary carving, in the Thule style, is of a pull sledge.
“Early on the 28th, we entered Godhavn. The anchor was no sooner down than natives were alongside us with numerous little articles so familiar to visitors to these Greenland ports— the toy kayaks, muffs, footstools, tobacco cases, ivory carvings, slippers, bird-skins, and rugs made from various furs and trimmed and decorated with bits of brilliantly dyed seal leather. Some of the men bought off more substantial if less intereting articles in the way of ducks, salmon trout, rock cod, and so on.” - Robert E. Peary, Northward over the Great Ice, published in 1898
"Model Ivory Sledge, Thule Style " 1930-1939, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Collections