English-Eskimo and Eskimo-English Vocabularies / Preceded by Ethnographical Memoranda Concerning the Arctic Eskimos in Alaska and Siberia, by John W. Kelly (US Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 2, Washington, DC, 1890) First Edition. Original wrappers. 72 pp. with 2 maps, 1 folding.
Financed by the Department of the Interior as an aid to the “education of children in Alaska, without distinction of race”, the 11,000-word vocabulary is valuably complemented by Kelly’s groundbreaking 20-page study, which touches on Eskimo tribal distinctions, personal appearance, ornamentation and dress, character, customs, courtship, marriage and polygamy, diseases, religious beliefs, festivities, hunting, dwellings and boats. Wells was a Naval officer aboard the USS Thetis, a steam whaler which had rescued the Greely Polar Expedition of 1884 and then cruised in the Bering Sea and Arctic ocean to protect the “whaling and commercial interests of the United States.” Wells, the ship’s interpreter, had spent seven years in Alaska acquiring a knowledge of Eskimo language and customs.