William Fitzhugh is Arctic Curator and Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Arctic Studies Center in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He has conducted anthropological and archaeological research throughout the circumpolar region and is visiting professor at Dartmouth College. The narwhal exhibition and book is the latest in a series of Smithsonian exhibitions that include Bering Sea Eskimos, the Ainu of Japan, cultures of Siberia and Alaska, Vikings, Genghis Khan, and ancient Bering Sea Eskimo art. His most recent books are Maine to Greenland: Exploring the Maritime Far Northeast and Bark and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia, to appear in 2018.