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This envelope has a unique history. It was one of about 2,000 envelopes that was printed in Norway and was stashed away in a water-proof box for the entire duration of the Kon-Tiki voyage - 101 days, nearly 5,000 miles. The art work was drawn by Eric Hesselberg and as the story goes, the crew thought of this idea late in preparations and hardly had any money left for the preparations of the voyage. So they were only able to print 2,000 copies. This specific envelope was sent by Eric Hesselberg (crew member of the Kon-Tiki Expedition) to himself using the Polynesian name Tane Materau that he had been given. Most of the envelopes were put back on the Kon-Tiki raft when it was shipped back to Oslo, Norway. In 1971 when the Kon-Tiki museum was built, the crew members who were still alive (5 of them) gathered. The envelopes had been found and they were divided up among the remaining crew members. The envelope is a special gift from Eric Hesselberg's daughter, Anne-Karin Hesselberg, via Betty Blair to Western University for the Heyerdahl Mini Collection.
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