Killer Whale Effigy Amulet
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1870
name: label: Collector
content: Lt. Franklin M. Ring
label: Donor Name
content: Lt. Franklin M. Ring
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "...WHALE EFFIGY SET WITH ABALONE.=NISHGA (NISGA'A). WHALE EFFIGY: LOANED: 4/18/1967 VANCOUVER ART GALLERY. RETURNED: 12/12/1967. LOANED: NATL. INSTIT. OF HEALTH 5/1/71. RETURNED: 11/9/71. LOANED: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART 9/10/1971. RETURNED: 2/9/72. LOANED TO THE S.I. CENTENNIAL COMM. 7-9-75. LOAN RETURNED MAR 22 1990. LOAN: CROSSROADS. SEP 22 1988. ILLUS. CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 374, P.273. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." "Amulet depicting a sea creature, probably a whale" according to Crossroads of Continents, illus. Pl. 231, p. 269. "Killer whale amulet made from walrus ivory."
label: Notes
content: Described p. 302 in Barbeau, Charles Marius. 1953. Haida myths illustrated in argillite carvings. [Ottawa]: Dept. of Resources and Development, National Parks Branch, National Museum of Canada. Identified as bone carving with abalone shell inlays, representing the Killer-Whale with Gunarhnesemgyet on his head.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact, listed as number E9813A, http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=507 retrieved 4-24-2012: Amulet, Tsimshian. The amulet portrays the story of Gunarhnesemgyet, whose wife is abducted by a white killer whale. As the whale speeds away from the village she shouts, "My people, come for me!" Gunarhnesemgyet follows in his canoe and eventually rescues her from the whale with the help of cormorants and the whale's servant, Gitsaedzan.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fort Simpson, British Columbia, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Haida
label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen), Nass River
label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen), Nisga'a
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 001763
label: USNM Number
content: E9813-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Amulet
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 19.5 cm
label: Width
content: 3 cm
label: Height
content: 7.5 cm