Carved Post In Sections
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1876
label: Collection Date
content: 1875
name: label: Collector
content: James G. Swan
label: Donor Name
content: James G. Swan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "AFTER AN EXTENSIVE SURVEY OF THE TOTEM POLES IN THE USNM COLLECTIONS, IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THIS SPECIMEN IS ONE OF THE POLES PRESENTLY ERECTED IN THE OLD ART HALL. IN ACCESSION RECORDS #4686 THERE IS REFERENCE TO NOTES FROM A 'SWAN' LTR DTD. 10 JAN 76 WHICH DESCRIBES A 30' POLE (PRESUMABLY) ACQUIRED FROM THE HBC AT FT. SIMPSON BUT POSSIBLY ACTUALLY PURCHASED AT VICTORIA? M. BARBEAU (P. 382-3) DESCRIBES THIS SPECIMEN AS TSIMSHIAN-PORT SIMPSON, CA. 1860-70, SUMMARIZING FROM 'BOAZ', TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY, P. 506. NEW NEG. NOS. ON BACK OF CARD. AND PL. 1., FROM FIELD DATA COLL. ABOUT 1889. BOAZ ASCRIBES AN EARLIER DATE FROM AN ADDITIONAL REFERENCE, P. 506, NOTE 1, CA. MID 1850'S. APPARENTLY THIS SPECIMEN, ORIGINAL OR NOT, WAS COLLECTED BY SWAN FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EXPOSITION OF 1876 AND CAN BE NOTED IN PHOTOS OF THAT EXHIBIT. ADDITIONAL NOTES FROM SWAN LTRS MENTION THAT THE POLE WAS SECTIONED FOR SHIPMENT AND COST $120. A LTR. FROM BARBEAU DTD. SEPT. 19, 1962 WOULD SEEM TO INDICATE HE HAD CHANGED HIS OPINION FROM THAT STATED IN HIS TOTEM POLES, P. 382-3 AND P. 432. THE ORIGINAL TSIMSHIAN IDENTIFICATION IS RETAINED IN LIEU OF CONTRARY EVIDENCE. 6/6/68 GP. PHOTOGRAPHS OF TOTEM POLE TAKEN IN SECTIONS: (BLACK AND WHITE) NEG. NOS. MNH 2339; 2340; 2342; 2343; 2344; 2345. 11-6-[19]75 LOANED TO THE 1876 - CENTENNIAL EXHIBIT, A & I - CENTER POLE. LOAN RETURNED SEP 1990. 1990 - THIS POLE ON EXHIBIT IN NHB CONSTITUTION AVE. LOBBY STAIRWELL - CENTER POLE. 1991 EXHIBIT LABEL IDENTIFIED POLE AS WESTERN RED CEDAR (THUJA PLICATA). CARVINGS ARE IDENTIFIED AS (FROM TOP): BEAR MOTHER; THUNDERBIRD; CUTTING-NOSE OR MOSQUITO; GRIZZLY BEAR."
label: Notes
content: From 2009 exhibit labels: Pole identified as carved from Western red cedar (Thuja plicata). Tsimshian Totem Pole, collected in 1876, Port Simpson, British Columbia, Canada. Crests, from top: Bear Mother, Thunderbird, Cutting-Nose or Mosquito, Grizzly Bear. Exhibit label includes a copy of a lithograph, which first appeared in 1854, which shows this totem pole standing by a Tsimshian house in Port Simpson. Source of lithograph is uncredited in the exhibit label. A separate label for the pole tells the story of Long Sharp-Nose. Also, the hooked nose crest identified in the first label as Thunderbird, is identified in this one as crest of Long Sharp-Nose. "Story of Long Sharp-Nose. Long Ago the People were celebrating the end of a successful fishing season. The children were noisy and woke the Chief of the Sky. Annoyed, he sent for them. to scare them into silence, he had Long-Sharp-Nose cut each child in two. Finally only a brave girl, who didn't cry, was left. Long Sharp-Nose struck her ... and broke apart. The brave girl married the Sky Chief's son and returned to earth with her husband and child. This story belongs to the Wolf clan of the Tsimshian people."
label: Notes
content: Per Robin Wright, Professor and Curator Emerita, University of Washington, 2018, pole # E23550 was exhibited in 1876 in the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Swan collected it from Fort Simpson, B.C. in 1875. It is shown in an 1867 watercolor of Ft. Simpson by Edwin Augustus Porcher in the Beinecke Library at Yale: 51. Ft. Simpson On the North Extreme of British Columbia. June 13, 1867, From: Edwin Augustus Porcher HMS Sparrowhawk diary and watercolor drawings, 1865-1868, WA MSS S-1972, https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433378 .
label: Notes
content: A photo of this pole on display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Archives: Photo ID 72-2383, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 285, Box 26, Folder: 5, https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_9960 . A print showing this pole on display at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is in the Free Library of Philadelphia collections and is available online: Centennial Exhibition 1876 Philadelphia Scrapbook. Scrapbooks. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/2406. (accessed Feb 25, 2018).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Oct 2024
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: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 005260
label: USNM Number
content: E23550-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Crest Column
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 91 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 122 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 8 m