Description
Tookoolito was a sister of Eenoolooapik, who visited Aberdeen in 1839. In 1853, John Bowlby arrived in Cumberland Sound in his ship, the Bee, hoping to establish a Christian mission there. He returned with three Inuit, who lived in Hull with the ship’s surgeon, William Gedney. They were exhibited in ethnographic displays, which often included them demonstrating their kayaking skills, at places such as the Hull Zoological Gardens and the Royal Ethnological Society. In February 1854, they met Queen Victoria at Windsor, after touring the castle and enjoying a luncheon there. They returned safely to Cumberland Sound in 1855 and Taqulittuq and Ipirvik went on to work as guides and interpreters with American explorers.
Bibliographic sources
“The Projected Settlement in Davis’ Strait,” Dundee Advertiser, 14 October 1853, 6; https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/taissumani-july-10/. For details of their exhibitions at Hull Zoological Gardens, see “Hull Zoological Gardens,” Hull Advertiser, 3 June 1854, 4; for the RES, see Ethnological Society minute book 1884-1869. Image by Giles Bishop – Mystic Seaport Museum collection via Connecticut Digital Archive, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77657036