Flax Cloak
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1858
label: Collection Date
content: 1840
name: label: Donor Name
content: United States Exploring Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: "KAITAKA PARAWAI" FLAX CLOAK WOVEN W/ BIAS-WEFTS RUNNING HORIZONTALLY COMMENCING AT THE NECK BORDER WHICH IS DECORATED WITH TWO-PLY RED AND BLACK WOOL TWISTED TO SHOW ALTERNATE COLOR PATTERNS. THE SIDES ARE EDGED WITH NARROW "TANIKO" BORDERS AND THE BOTTOM HAS A WIDE 23.5 CM BORDER W/ TRIANGULAR & DIAMOND SHAPED PATTERNS. THERE ARE 70 CONTINOUS WEFT ROWS WHICH RANGE FROM 1.3 TO 1.5 CM. IN WIDTH. SEVEN SIMPLE ELLIPTICAL INSERTS AT THE SHOULDER AND BUTTOCKS GIVE SHAPE TO THE GARMENT. THE CLOAK IS BADLY WATER STAINED. THE EXTENSIVE WATER STAINING MAY POSSIBLY BE A RESULT OF THE 1865 FIRE IN THE SMITHSONIAN CASTLE, OR PERHAPS SOME ALSO WAS SUSTAINED FROM USE OR DURING THE OCEAN VOYAGE FROM NEW ZEALAND TO THE U.S.? THIS CLOAK WAS LISTED AS ET9351, BUT SINCE IT IS EVIDENTLY A WILKES CLOAK IT HAS BEEN TENTATIVELY ASSIGNED CATALOGUE #3775 SINCE IT MORE OR LESS MATCHES THE DESCRIPTION FOUND ON AN OLD EXHIBITION LABEL WHICH READS "MAT...FLAX WITH BROAD VARIEGATED BORDER ALONG ONE SIDE AND NARROW AT ENDS". DESCRIBED BY DESMOND KAHOTEA, 1984. HAS ORIGINAL PEALE TAG; ALSO ATTACHED TAG READS, "NO. 6 RIESENBERG".
label: Notes
content: From card: "#3766-75. Ornamented. [The information that follows is from back of the catalogue card and appears to be quoting an old 19th or early 20th century exhibit label for the cloak]: "#3775: Made of New Zealand flax--Phormium tenax, with broad variegated border along one side and narrow border at ends. Used by the natives as clothing. Length, 7 ft. 9 in. Width, 3 ft. 8 in. The costume of the New Zealander consists of a square or oblong mat, varying considerably in size, though always made on the same principle. In this mat the natives envelop themselves, generally muffling themselves up to the neck, and often throwing the folds around them after the fashion of the conventional stage villian [sic]."
label: Notes
content: Peale catalogue identifies # 523 - 530 as "Blanket mats called "Kaitoke" woven by hand from thread made of the native flax (Phormium tenax)." Additional information from D.R. Simmons, Curator, Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1973. Simmons notes that these cloaks would more properly be called Kaitaka, i.e. flax cloaks with patterned taniko borders, because Kaitoke = earthworm.
label: Notes
content: Jane Walsh had indicated this cloak E3775 had a Peale # tag of 523 when she examined it in the 1980s. However, in 2018 no Peale tag or label is present on E3775. Also, flax cloak # 3770 does have an original Peale # label of 523 still present/glued on. So, either both cloaks were given Peale number 523 in error, or there is some other mistake in the records. Possibly E3775 may be Peale # 524?
label: Record Last Modified
content: 26 Apr 2018
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) / Bay of Islands, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Maori
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E3775-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cloak
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 2.36 m
label: Width - Object
content: 1.12 m
label: Length - Object
content: 2.36 m
label: Width - Object
content: 1.12 m