Life, 1917-12-06 · page 37 of 92
Life — December 6, 1917 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features satirical content mocking Arctic/Indigenous themes that were popular novelty subjects in early 20th-century society entertainment. **The content includes:** - **"Ladies' Team of the Polar Polo Club"**: A joke about wealthy women adopting exaggerated Arctic personas with absurd names (Muskox, Crackjaw, Bigtooth)—mocking both the fashionable fascination with polar exploration and high-society ladies' recreational clubs. - **The Totem Pole**: References a newly erected artwork in "Rearwallow Square" by an artist with a comedic "Native" name (Bartolomeo Bone-Axe), satirizing both artistic pretension and the era's stereotyping of Indigenous art. - **Portrait subjects**: Women posed with Arctic animals and props, celebrating their participation in fashionable Arctic-themed entertainment and amateur arts. The satire targets the superficial adoption of exotic themes by privileged society figures who played at Arctic culture as entertainment while actual Indigenous peoples faced marginalization. Modern readers should recognize this reflects deeply problematic racial attitudes common to the period.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Society, Art Horthern Society Potes $8 THE LADIES’ TEAM OF TITE POLAR POLO CLUB From left to right, Miss Minerya Muskox, Miss Caroline Crackjaw, Mrs, Clarence K. Squinteye and Miss Elizabeth Bigtooth, The new Totem Pole that is to be erected in . Rearwallow Square. Miss Eleanor Ov This is the work of Mr. Bartolomeo Bone-Axe, —cdle in Mr. Clive and has been highly commended for its delicacy Mournful“Muskra Of conception and restrained vigor of treatment. (Costume by Mada Ear, who is pl arptooth’s lates at the Pen ¢ Shinskirt.) og the leading cess, * The in Playhouse, Mrs, Henry Bowls ing Association for the past three seasons. Miss fred Walrus-Hyde, the ter of Laurence J. Walrus-Hyde, the blubber n a Miss Walrusltyde’is an ardent devotee at the Arts, and the exquisite soup-bow! she is boldin the work of her own han es comicbooks.com