Flax Cloak
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1858
label: Collection Date
content: 1840
name: label: Donor Name
content: United States Exploring Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: "KAITAKA PARAWAI" FLAX (PHORMIUM TENAX) CLOAK WOVEN W/ BIAS-WEFTS RUNNING HORIZONTALLY COMMENCING AT THE NECK BORDER. THE CLOAK HAS TANIKO BORDER DESIGNS ON ALL FOUR SIDES, THE LOWER BORDER BEING THE WIDEST AND MOST INTRICATE. TOP BORDER 2.8 CM. WIDE, SIDE BORDERS 3.6 CM. WIDE, BOTTOM BORDER 26 CM. WIDE. THE TANIKO BORDERS INCLUDE SOME WOOL AND ARE DECORATED WITH GEOMETRIC DESIGNS IN BLACK, BROWN, BLUE, RED, GREEN AND NATURAL COLORS. FLAX FIBER CORDAGE (2-PLY) IS ATTACHED TO TOP BORDER FOR TYING. THIS CLOAK HAS HAD THE NUMBER T-106 FOR SOME TIME, IT IS EVIDENTLY A WILKES CLOAK, PEALE # 527, AND HAS BEEN TENTATIVELY ASSIGNED THE CATALOGUE # 3834 BY JANE WALSH. THE CLOAK WAS ON PERMANENT EXHIBIT IN THE NMNH PACIFIC HALL, HALL 8, UNIT 48, AND WAS REMOVED FOR EXHIBITION IN MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 1985-86. EXHIBITED SITES "MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS," 1987-89.
label: Notes
content: Peale catalogue identifies # 523 - 530 as "Blanket mats called "Kaitoke" woven by hand from thread made of the native flax (Phormium tenax)." Additional information from D.R. Simmons, Curator, Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, 1973. Simmons notes that these cloaks would more properly be called Kaitaka, i.e. flax cloaks with patterned taniko borders, because Kaitoke = earthworm.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Aug 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) / Bay of Islands, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Maori
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E3834-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cloak
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 130 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 261 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 110.2 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 207 cm