Copper
date: label: Accession Date
content: 12 Oct 1926
label: Collection Date
content: purchased June 1926
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Ales F. Hrdlicka
label: Collector
content: Dr. Robert Simpson
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "SHIP'S BOTTOM COPPER SHEETING WITH NATIVE RIVETING. CONSISTS OF SHEET COPPER. 1-2 CM. IN THICKNESS JOINED BY COPPER RIVETS INTO FORM TYPICAL OF N.W. COAST INDIAN 'PROPERTY' SHIELDS. OUTLINE FORM ROUGHLY OBLONG WITH FLARING EDGES EXTENDING FROM CENTRAL TRANSVERSE MIDRIB TO TOP MARGIN. BOTH TOP & BOTTOM ARE CONVEXED DIAMOND-SHAPE. A SECOND REINFORCING MIDRIB EXTENDS LONGITUDINALLY FROM CENTER TO BASE. RIBS ARE 1-2 CM. DEEP V GROOVES OPENING ON REVERSE OF SHIELD. NO SUSPENSION LOOP OR ARM HOLD DESIGNS. DESIGN ETCHING ON OBVERSE. (TAKEN FROM AN EARLY LABEL:) NATIVE COPPER SHIELDS. THESE SHIELDS WERE THE MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION OF THE ALASKA NATIVE AND THEIR PRICE RECKONED IN SLAVES. ONE LIKE THIS WAS WORTH ABOUT FIVE SLAVES. WE HAVE QUESTIONED SEVERAL AUTHORITIES ABOUT THIS SHIELD AND THEY ALL SAY THAT IT IS UNDOUBTABLY MADE OF COPPER NUGGETS HAMMERED OUT FLAT AND RIVETED TOGETHER. ITS ORIGIN THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY. THE OWNER WAS A PRINCE OF WALES NATIVE. THE DAY AFTER HE SOLD IT TO US HE TRIED TO PERSUADE US TO TRADE BACK."
label: Notes
content: See BAE 46th Annual Report, p. 35, where acquisition of this artifact is discussed. Ales Hrdlicka purchased this object (as well as E332801, discussed on p. 34) from Robert Simpson of The Nugget Shop, a curio shop in Juneau, Alaska. Purchased by Hrdlicka in 1926, presumably in June of that year as was E332801. The publication indicates that, according to Simpson, he purchased the copper in "Klawak, Prince of Wales Island."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 Aug 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Prince of Wales Island / Klawock / Juneau (purchased here), Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tlingit
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 093522
label: USNM Number
content: E333176-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Copper
physicalDescription: label: Length - At Top
content: 81 cm
label: Width - At Top
content: 37 cm
label: Unknown - At Top
content: 53.3 cm
label: Width - At 1.5 Cm Elev. Of Rib
content: 37.6 cm