Notes

FROM CARD: "IN SHAPE OF AN ANCIENT MEXICAN WAR CLUB WITH RAGGED EDGE. THE SIDES ARE CARVED TO REPRESENT A MARINE ANIMAL. MADE OF WHALE'S BONE. SEE ACC. PAPERS #38645. LOAN: MUSEO NACIONAL DE ANTROPOLOGIA 5/18/64." Loan returned 2012. Identified as Marine Mammal/Walrus bone, rather than whale, during preparation of affidavits on organic materials for Mexico loan return, 2011.Provenience note: Emmons purchased this object in Alaska in 1901. His initial letter to the Smithsonian listing it as for sale was written from Killisnoo, Alaska. The "Prince of Wales Island" locality on the catalogue card seems to be due to a misreading of information in a letter Emmons sent on the provenance of the object. In a letter dated September 30, 1901, which is filed in the accession file, Emmons writes: "It is from the 'Stickheen qwan' [Stikine] living about the mouth of the Stickheen [Stikine] River and Clarence Sts. [islands of Clarence Strait area?], South Eastern Alaska, of the 'Tlingit' people. It is called in Tlingit 'Khutse' and is of a very old type of which but a few pieces have ever been found. I have seen this character of club figure on an old grave (totem) post at the Henyah village of 'Tuck-she-kan' [Tuxekan?] on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island."