Inuit and Europeans have been interacting in Labrador for centuries. Europeans began seasonal whaling, fishing and trading with Inuit along the coast in the sixteenth century. By the late eighteenth century the westerners had established permanent settlements in Labrador. Inuit groups acquired European goods and used them as adornments. Europeans were just as quick to adopt some aspects of Inuit clothing, better suited than their own for the rigors of the Labrador climate. Photographs taken over the last century illustrate how each group modified its mode of dress over time.

This exhibit was prepared by The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, with the generous support of the Kane Lodge Foundation, Inc.

Pictured above: