Carved Argillite Vessel; Frog-Shaped

Item number E2567-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

Small bowl carved from black argillite in the form of a frog. Has original Peale # label. Front left foot broken/part missing.Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition. This object has been attributed as possibly Haida, based on its being made of argillite.Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7186, United States Exploring Expedition Collection, Box 2, Folder 6, has a shipping list/received list via the USS Oregon in October 1842: "Ex Ex Box No. 18 R. R. Waldron [Richard Russell Waldron]. Box No. 18 From the Oregon Territory containing ... 1 Dish in shape of a Bull frogg. Black Stone ... ".Listed on page 45 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 (Tools)".