Blanket - Button Blanket
Item number E274676-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.
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Notes
From card: "Thick blue blanket stuff with broad border of broadcloth ornamented with applique designs of whales [sic], men, and seals [sic], and lines of pearl buttons. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned Jan 21 1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 221, p. 174."Blue and black-striped diagonal weave napped wool blanket with top and sides edged in appliqued band of red wool. Beige selvages on red wool are typical of a strouding trade blanket. Red wool shapes of standing bear(?) with arms spread, crosses, and 27 salmon(?) appliqued on as decoration. Small white shell buttons form rectangles, one within the other, in the center. Four large white shell buttons decorate centers of four crosses, and two more form eyes of the bear. White beads outline bear's figure. tabs with buttons on top edge may be device for a neck tie or for securingIllus. Fig. 221, p. 174 in Fitzhugh William W., Aron Crowell and National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). 1988. Crossroads of Continents : Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there as Tsimshian: "As described in the Tsimshian myth of "The Prince Who Was Taken Away by the Spring Salmon" (Boas 1916: 192), each species of salmon has its own chief and village beneath the sea. When the cottonwood leaves fall into the Skeena River, it is a signal for the salmon to leave their villages and head upstream, led by their chief, the First Salmon. It is not known what myth is illustrated by this flannel-appliqued button blanket, but its humanoid central figure may represent a salmon chief. Alternatively, it may be the submarine monster Nagunaks ..."
Item History
- Made in Alaska, USA
- Collected by Gov John G. Brady in Alaska, USA between 1878 and 1909
- Received from Mrs. Edward H. Harriman on June 7, 1912
What
- Name
- Blanket - Button Blanket
- Identification Number
- E274676-0
- Type of Item
- blanket
Where
- Holding Institution
- National Museum of Natural History
- Made in
- Alaska, USA
- Collected in
- Alaska, USA
Who
- Culture
- Indian and Tsimshian ?
- Field Collector
- Gov John G. Brady
- Received from
- Mrs. Edward H. Harriman
When
- Collection Date
- between 1878 and 1909
- Acquisition Date
- on June 7, 1912
Other
- Accession Number
- 054171
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