Exhibit Label

No more royal robe ever draped a king than the dancing blanket of the northern Northwest Coast, universally named the Chilkat blanket, after the Tlingit tribe whose weavers specialized in its making in the nineteenth century. Its characteristic five-sided form, richly fringed, with striking black and yellow bands bordering a complex tapestry of eyes, fins, or feathers, is instantly recognizable. There are dozens of Chilkat blanket patterns. The most common are those called diving whale, most of which are divided into three distinct panels, the central one depicting the whale. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)