Frontal Piece For Headdress
date: label: Accession Date
content: 12 Sep 1903
label: Collection Date
content: 1903
name: label: Collector
content: Lt. George T. Emmons
label: Donor Name
content: Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "HEAD, BUST AND ARMS OF WOMAN CARVED IN RELIEF ON SQUARE BACKGROUND, THE MARGINS INLAID WITH ABALONE. IT IS THE FRONT OF A HEADDRESS OF ERMINE. L.P. EXPOSITION, ST. LOUIS, 1904. OBJECT IS ILLUS. FIG. 6, P. 65, IN EMMONS, GEORGE T. "PORTRAITURE AMONG THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST TRIBES," AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, 16(1), 1914. OBJECT IDENTIFIED THERE AS "BUST OF A YOUNG GIRL NATURALLY POSED AND DRESSED IN THE STYLE OF A GENERATION AGO; IT IS SAID TO REPRESENT THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER OF A HAIDA CHIEF WHOSE UNTIMELY DEATH SO SADDENED THE FATHER THAT HE HAD HER IMAGE CARVED IN THIS MANNER IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT WEAR IT ON CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS ON THE FRONT OF HIS HEAD-DRESS." SEE FIG. 11, P. 180 OF BILL HOLM, "WILL THE REAL CHARLES EDENSAW PLEASE STAND UP?", IN "THE WORLD IS AS SHARP AS A KNIFE"; BRITISH COLUMBIA PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, VICTORIA, 1981, WHERE FRONTLET IS ATTRIBUTED TO CARVER CHARLES GWAYTIHL. [NOTE: RESEARCH BY ROBIN WRIGHT IDENTIFIES NAME AS JOHN GWAYTIHL, NOT CHARLES, BUT WRIGHT ATTRIBUTES PIECE TO SIMEON STILTHDA, NOT GWAYTIHL, SEE BELOW]. SEE PL. 30, P. 41 IN GEORGE F. MACDONALD, HAIDA MONUMENTAL ART; UNIV. OF BRITISH COLUMBIA PRESS, VANCOUVER, 1983. PLATE IS 1890'S PHOTO TAKEN AT SKIDEGATE SHOWING FRONTLET BEING WORN BY WOMAN IN BACK ROW. Object is illus.: Fig. 6, p. 40 in Wright, Robin K. "The Depiction of Women in Nineteenth Century Haida Argillite Carving," American Indian Art Magazine 11(4), Autumn 1986. Object is described on p.44- 45 of this article and again identified as Haida. 4/18/1967 Loaned to Vancouver Art. Gallery; 12/13/1967 Returned. Loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago 6/22/77; Returned 12/1/77."
label: Notes
content: Originally cataloged as Tlingit, but later changed to Haida. Catalog card notes: "...corrected based on G.T. Emmons, American Anthropologist 16 (1): 65 (fig. 6), W. Sturtevant 12/2/1988"
label: Notes
content: 7-21-2005 per Jay Stewart and Peter Macnair, this artifact has been attributed to maker Simeon Stilthda (d. 1883), rather than Gwaytihl. See Collections Lab accession file for additional information. See Fig. 5.60, p. 295 of Wright, Robin Kathleen. 2001. Northern Haida master carvers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, where Wright attributes this headdress frontlet to Simeon Stilthda/Simeon sdiihldaa. See also pp. 45-46, and Fig. 11 p. 48 in Wright, Robin K. "Two Haida Artists from Yani: Will John Gwaytihl and Simeon Stilthda Please Step Apart," American Indian Art Magazine 23(3), Summer 1998.
label: Notes
content: See also accession file for Accession 41221, which contains information about objects from several different Emmons accessions. It appears to contain information about headdress frontlet # E221176. It may be the object referred to on a list at the end of that file as "Head dress mask from Skidigit [presumably Skidegate?], womans face + bust carved."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 22 Feb 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Skidegate (not certain), Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) (not certain) / Graham Island (not certain), British Columbia (not certain), Canada (not certain), North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Haida
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 041512
label: USNM Number
content: E221176-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Frontlet
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 18.41 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 15.57 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 8 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 18.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 15.5 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 7 cm