Totem-Pole
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1875
name: label: Collector
content: James G. Swan
label: Donor Name
content: Accession Number Unknown
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 THE INTERIOR HOUSE POLE STORED IN THE E-WING BASEMENT. IT WAS APPARENTLY COLLECTED FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EXPOSITION OF 1876 AND CAN BE NOTED IN PHOTOS OF THAT EXHIBIT. IT WAS ORIGINALLY ACCESSIONED AS A HAIDA SPECIMEN BUT THIS IS PROBABLY AN ERROR. BOAZ, 1895 REPORT ON THE KWAKIUTL, PL. 36, CLEARLY SHOWS A SIMILAR INTERIOR HOUSE POST (DANCE HOUSE) AND THE TREATMENT OF THE SPECIMEN IS CONSISTENT WITH KWAKIUTL WORK. 6/6/68. APPARENTLY IN 1898 IT WAS NOTED THAT THIS SPECIMEN WAS NOT NUMBERED AND PRESUMABLY UNCATALOGED. ACCORDINGLY #178982 WAS ASSIGNED (DUPLICATIVE) WITHOUT DATA."
label: Notes
content: Identified Nov. 1988 as an interior house post by Susan Rowley, Curator, Arctic & Public Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.
label: Notes
content: This pole or house post appears to be the one on the right in engraving shown on p. 100 and captioned "The Indian Department, in the United States Government Building", in Norton, Frank H., and Frank Leslie. 1877. Frank Leslie's historical register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876. Embellished with nearly eight hundred illustrations drawn expressly for this work by the most eminent artists in America. Including illustrations and descriptions of all previous International exhibitions. New York: Frank Leslie's Pub. House. The pole on the left in the same engraving is E54298. On p. 106 of the publication, in the section on "Indian Curiosities", the text identifies both "totem posts" in the illustration as belonging to the "Mukah" (i.e. Makah) Indians. Note that the Library of Congress has a copy of this engraving and a thumbnail image is shown on their website here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005689180/ . E54298 had been identified in the records as Haida, but it is probable that E54301 is Makah. If it is Makah, it is also possible its catalogue number originally was E20901, rather than E54301, and it would have come as part of Accession 4730. (It is also possible this pole was catalogued twice; once when it first came into the collections, and then again later in 1882 with a group of other previously uncatalogued poles.) Swan identifies E20901 as a large Makah carved image. Swan's invoice notation (in accession papers for Acc. 4730) for the cost of the large shipping box used to ship E20901 notes that the box made to ship that artifact, along with 2 paddles, a bird spear, and a cane, was 11 feet long.
label: Notes
content: This interior house post is similar in style to the ones depicted in a drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861; see the one on the left with the striped face which appears to match this house post. This drawing is illustrated on p. 81 of Miles, George A., James Gilchrist Swan, Franz Stenzel, and Kathryn M. Stenzel. 2003. James Swan, cha-tic of the Northwest Coast: drawings and watercolors from the Franz & Kathryn Stenzel collection of western American art. New Haven, Conn: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. The drawing and interior house posts are also discussed on pp. 23-24 of this publication, which notes that the one on the left in the drawing was shaped by a Ditidaht/Nitinaht artist from Vancouver Island.
label: Notes
content: Aaron Glass, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Bard Graduate Center, 2012, doubts the Haida or Kwakiutl attributions that had been applied to this object. Robin Wright, Emerita Curator of Native American Art, Burke Museum, 2013, also does not think this is Haida or Kwakiutl: "Based on it's style alone, it would either be Nuu-chah-nulth [Nootka] or Makah. The face has a long sloping under brow plane and the eye is flat on the cheek plane, which are characteristics shared by the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth. So, [definitely] not Kwakwaka'wakw [Kwakiutl] or Haida. If Swan collected it, then Makah would be a likely source, although they in turn may have received it from a Nuu-chah-nulth carver." Wright in 2018 also noted that she believes this house post is the one shown in the drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861 (see above).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 8 Oct 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Neah Bay, Clallam County / Neah Bay, Washington, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Makah (?)
label: Culture
content: Ditidaht (Nitinaht) (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 000000
label: USNM Number
content: E54301-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Crest Column
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 36 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 61 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 277 cm