The Earliest Sound Recordings among North American Inuit

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Ross, W. Gillies
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1984
• Subjects: Anthropology; History; Inuit; Music; Sound recordings; Alaska; Greenland; Nunavut; Sibir'; Russian Federation; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Sibir’; Arctic; eskimo*; inuit
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65257

On 7 November 1903, Captain George Comer of the American whaling schooner Era recorded on a phonograph a few songs of the Aivilingmiut and Qaernermiut in northwestern Hudson Bay (Ross, 1984:73). These appear to have been the earliest sound recordings ever made among the Inuit of Canada and Alaska. The recordings made by Diamond Jenness among the Copper Eskimos (1914-1916) and those made by Christian Leden among the Padlimiut (1914-1916) have hitherto been considered as the earliest, but Comer's first recording preceded these by more than a decade and his pioneering work should be recognized.