In the years preceding their extinction by the Spanish flu brought by missionaries aboard the SS Harmony, haunting photographs depict Inuit villages enduring the rigors of Subarctic existence.
The pictures were sold at auction for £4,100 to a Canadian by David Lay Auctioneers of Penzance, Cornwall.
It is thought that Paul Hettasch, a renowned missionary photographer who studied at a missionary school in Niesky, Germany, took the photographs.
From 1898 to 1947, he served in the Labrador region of Canada and married Ellen Marie Koch, the daughter of a renowned photographer.
The images depict Inuit people surviving the harsh temperature of Subarctic Canada by hunting seals and walruses and using their skins as clothes.
Some of the photographs are accompanied by captions from 1909, two from 1912, and one from 1913. The photographs portray ordinary life in Labrador.
Missionaries from the Moravian Church, which was formed in the Holy Roman Empire, were the first Europeans to settle in Labrador and took the images.
It is a Protestant church with roots in ancient Bohemia, the modern Czech Republic, and Labrador, where missionaries propagated Christianity.
Their mission was not successful until the 19th century, when they began to convert Inuit by offering them gifts and goods.
The photographs were taken years before the outbreak of the Spanish flu in Newfoundland and Labrador in September 1918, which claimed the lives of over 600 individuals in less than five months.
After the Moravian ship SS Harmony returned to Labrador in the summer of 1919, the sickness spread throughout Inuit settlements and killed nearly one-third of the Inuit population.
In 1919, the few surviving women and children burned down the town and disbanded the community, which had 263 adult male residents.
The population of another group residing at Hebron, the northernmost village in Labrador, was reduced from 220 to 7.
Inuit ladies are shown wearing traditional clothes while carrying baskets, while a man is seen carrying a tool on his back close to them.
In Labrador, an Inuit mother smiles as she wraps her infant in her traditional amauti (parka) and poses for the camera.
As they sit on the ground in their Labrador common area, members of the Inuit community are observed eating Walrus tusks that they have hunted.
Two children go about their daily lives in Labrador in the years preceding the Spanish Flu pandemic, which decimated a large portion of the Inuit population.
During the 19th century in Labrador, men on a ship carry tools while they tend to it with tools as part of their daily routines.
Another image depicts a landscape view of an Inuit community in the years before about one-third of its inhabitants were wiped out by the Spanish virus.
This picture depicts an iceberg. Winter temperatures in Newfoundland and Labrador may drop to -15 degrees. Before the SS Harmony carried Spanish flu to Inuit settlements, the photo was taken.
The gorgeous black-and-white photographs were shown throughout Europe to connect missionaries with their home congregations and raise cash and awareness for ongoing missions.
The joyful Inuit families seen on film had only a few years left before their tranquil existence was eradicated.
In 1752, a group of merchants affiliated with the Moravian congregation in London agreed to conduct a missionary and trading expedition to the Labrador coast in order to convert the Inuit to Christianity.
They constructed a mission home at Makkovik and named it Hoffnungsthal (Hopedale), but the voyage was unsuccessful and ended with Christian Ehrhardt and six of his companions being murdered by Inuits.
After ten years, with the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, another missionary attempted to establish a new mission in Labrador.
Jens Haven spoke with Sir Hugh Palliser, the governor of Newfoundland, to discuss how he may travel to Labrador.
Christian missionaries are depicted in the Newfoundland and Labrador region before to the outbreak of the Spanish Flu.
Eskimo children, as they were known, smile for the camera in one of the Inuit communities in Nain, wearing traditional attire.
This photograph depicts a native of Newfoundland and Labrador from the 19th century, when Moravian missionaries were attempting to convert the Inuit to Christianity.
During the winter, northern portions of the region could experience temperatures as low as -15 degrees Fahrenheit, as depicted in this photograph of a man with ice on his nose and lower face.
A group of ‘native assistants’ wearing traditional dress smiles for the camera in the 19th century; another shot from the Inuit settlements to be auctioned.
Additionally, a local family was photographed for the collection. There is a girl seated on the ground with her sister and parents.
A map indicating the locations of two Inuit communities. Missionaries also established communities at Nain and Ramah.
Sir Palliser realized, after discussing the mission with Haven, that the Moravians would be able to assist ease the animosity between Europeans and Inuits and supported two trips to the region in 1764 and 1765.
British Moravians were granted the right to settle and possess 100,000 acres of land in ‘Esquimaux Bay’ in 1769, following protracted negotiations.
Haven led another journey in 1770, during which he selected a location for a mission station.
The first missionary settlement was established in Nain in 1771, followed by Okak in 1776 and Hopedale at Arvertok in 1782.
The stations contained a communal housing, as well as a church, trading store, and outbuildings, gardens, and graveyards, which were used to cover the mission’s revenues.
In addition to attempting to convert the Inuit to Christianity, missionaries engaged in trading to finance their endeavors.
The mission was originally ineffective, but supplying food and supplies to the Inuits resulted in a large number of converts.
In 1818, the situation improved, and approximately 600 Inuit were linked to the three stations. Hebron was founded in 1830, Zoar in 1865, Ramah in 1871, Makkovik in 1896, and Killinek in 1905 within the next century.
The landscapes where the Inuit lived in the 19th century, which were extremely frigid, are depicted (pictured).
During the 19th century in Newfoundland and Labrador, Inuits are seen chasing fish in sub-zero temperatures while bundled against the cold.
A 19th-century Inuit child with vegetables smiles brightly as they go about their daily life before the Spanish Flu wiped out one-third of the population.
Mrs. Schmitt carrying a baby on her back in nineteenth-century Newfoundland and Labrador (pictured)
The SS Harmony introduced the Spanish Flu to Newfoundland and Labrador, killing a significant portion of the Inuit population.
Alongside the Inuit, Moravians supported the expanding colonial population on the northern coast. The Hudson’s Bay Company presented competition to the local economy.
During the 19th century, at least thirty to forty missionaries resided on the coast at any given time. Many remained for years or a lifetime.
The majority of inhabitants were Germans who learned Inuktitut in church and school.
They sent their children to Europe to receive an education, and the SS Harmony, their only means of communication with the outside world, visited annually.
Between Christmas and Easter, the Inuit continued to hunt, fish, and trap animals, but they tented near the mission houses.
There, people would attend religious services, receive medical care, and engage in commerce.
They exchanged sealskins, dried fish, and crafts for wheat, tea, fabric, and firearms.
Children also attended schools with Inuktitut instruction.
During the nineteenth century, Inuit were seen foraging for sustenance in the snow as they went about their daily lives in frigid conditions.
A photograph of a cheerful Inuit man taken prior to the fear of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
On the expedition done by the Moravians, the SS Harmony suffered damage and had to be repaired.
During the 19th century in Newfoundland and Labrador, a senior Inuit man wraps himself up against the cold.
The Inuit lived contentedly and harmoniously among the Moravians until the SS Harmony returned to Labrador in the summer of 1919 carrying Spanish Flu and nearly wiped off the entire region’s population.
The Spanish Flu was a pandemic of the 20th century that began in 1918 and was caused by the HN1N1 virus.
It is unknown where the virus first spread, but the 1918-19 influenza pandemic swept the globe.
Approximately 500 million people were infected with the virus, a significant portion of the world’s population. There were at least 50 million deaths, with 675 thousand in the United States.
A distinctive aspect of the pandemic was the exceptionally high fatality rates among healthy persons. As the disease spread, isolation, quarantine, disinfectants, and restrictions on public gatherings were implemented because neither vaccine or antibiotics were available.
During the nineteenth century, missionaries camped with locals while converting Inuit to Christianity in Labrador.
Eskimos, as they were known, in Nain, one of the photographs of Inuit life that were put up for auction.
Pictured is the crew of the SS Harmony, which transported missionaries to Newfoundland and Labrador.
An Inuit sledge with huskies ploughs through the snowy landscape in Labrador as they go about their daily lives.
During the years before the Spanish Flu swept out a large portion of the people in Newfoundland and Labrador, human bones were discovered under rocks.
After two-thirds of the Inuit perished as a result of the Spanish flu, the missions were forced to close.
The Moravians chose to transfer their commercial business to the Hudson Bay Company in 1926.
In 1949, Newfoundland joined Canada and the government assumed responsibility for education. It was conducted in English at first.
Today, Inuit in Labrador are divided into two factions. They are the Inuit of Nunatukavut in the south and the Inuit of Nunatsiut in Labrador.
Using craft, art, and storytelling as a significant component of their way of life, they defend their country. Inuit continue to teach others their survival tactics, ceremonies, and traditions, adhering to the ways of their predecessors. And in Nunatsiavut, the territory is autonomous after the Labrador Inuit Association made a claim with the Canadian government.
It is the first region in Canada to acquire autonomy, and its culture is a unique blend of tradition and modernity.
A solitary iceberg may be observed in the lonely terrain of Newfoundland and Labrador, when winter temperatures are extremely cold.
One of the ships at dry dock in St. John’s. The photograph was taken in the nineteenth century.
In winter, temperatures in the region’s northern regions may reach as low as -15 degrees Fahrenheit, and Inuit used multiple layers of clothing to survive.
Pictured is the Lord’s Prayer, as it was known in Eskimo at the time. The missionaries who came to the region to propagate Christianity spoke Inuktitut.
A missionary dressed for the cold in Labrador while working with Inuit community members.
An Inuit elder poses for the camera as part of the auction’s collection of photographs.
During the 19th century, a missionary is depicted looking for food on a sledge with huskies while enduring the cold weather.
The album contains portraits of Christian missionaries who worked among Inuit in Labrador. Some embraced Christianity
This image depicts a young Inuit girl wearing traditional attire. Inuit hunted for food and fashioned tools and boat frames from wood.
Inuit continue to wear traditional garb, frequently donning amauti (parkas) or dickie (pullover coats). Inuit also wear sealskin mitts to protect their hands from the winter cold.
In the games played at community meetings, strength and stamina are prioritized over equipment.
Elders and youth fall into the same category, and Inuit also like drum dance and throat singing.
People speak Inuttitut, occasionally conducting complete conversations in it or blending it with English.
The natural elements and people of Nunatsiavut are a constant source of inspiration for our towns’ many creative artisans and craft manufacturers. Stone, caribou, and moose antler sculptures, handcrafted slippers coated with seal skin, and saltwater grass-woven baskets and bowls are among the available final products.
A representative of the auction house stated, “It is a fascinating collection that provides a vivid glimpse into the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Labrador region of Canada prior to the devastating impacts of the Spanish Flu.
“We were thrilled to present these unique and culturally significant photographs of Inuit by Moravian missionaries.”
The Inuit slides are being returned to Canada, and we are honored to be a part of the process of reconciling these wonderful photos with their native nation.
A man dressed in traditional attire is observed in the bitterly cold environment where the Inuit resided. They adjusted to daily life despite the frigid temperatures.
Traditional Inuit food collection methods included hunting and fishing. Local fishing vessels of Newfoundland and Labrador are pictured.
A photograph depicts a group of local Inuit children playing outside. They are wearing protective clothes against the cold weather.
Inuit survive the cold in Labrador by wearing layers of warm clothing while standing on ice.
A photograph of Labrador children dressed in traditional garb standing or sitting on the icy ground.
Another photograph of Inuit aboard the SS Harmony during the 19th century was sold at auction to a Canadian customer.
A missionary dressed for the cold in Labrador while serving the Inuit community is depicted.