Wooden Box Drum
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Jan 1905
label: Collection Date
content: 1904
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. John R. Swanton
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: A box drum. Note re photos: Neg. # 96-20094 shows side 1, and 96-20095 shows side 2, of this box drum's painted sides.
label: Notes
content: Per Repatriation Office research, as reported in the Tlingit case report (Hollinger et al. 2005), this drum was purchased by John R. Swanton from Mrs. Robert Shadesty in Wrangell, Alaska in 1904.
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 http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=304 , retrieved 12-30-2011: Box drum Drums sound out the heartbeat of grief, as expressed in the Killer Whale mourning song. Box drums accompany singing during funerals and at the memorial ku.éex' (memorial potlatch) ceremonies that come later. The box drum is a wide plank of red cedar, steamed and bent at the corners, with a separate top piece attached by nails. The painted design represents the Killer Whale. Box drums were traditionally suspended from the ceiling of a lineage house and played by young men; the technique is to hit the inside with fist or fingers to vary the volume and tone.
label: Notes
content: Listed on page 44 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jun 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Wrangell Island / Wrangell, 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: 043833
label: USNM Number
content: E233491-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Drum
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 96 cm