Wooden Chest

Item number E60176-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "LOANED TO THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ON SEPTEMBER 10, 1971. RETURNED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 2-9-72. REPAIRED AND RESTORED AT CONSERVATION 8/15/72. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG.387, P.281. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993."This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=127 , retrieved 11-28-2011: Chest This clan leader's chest - a bentwood box to hold clan regalia and crest objects - is decorated with operculum shells on the lid and base; these shells are the "trapdoor" pieces from red turban sea snails. Red paint used on the chest was probably hematite, ocher, or cinnabar mixed with grease and crushed salmon eggs. The central carving is a brown bear peering out of the entrance of its cave in spring; the large teeth and nostrils are distinguishing marks of this animal. Carvings of eagles flank the bear on each side, recognizable by their hooked beaks, wings, tails, and curved talons. "Here's the bear looking through his hole. In the fall time they close up their dens with a bunch of sticks and branches. Before he comes out, he looks out that opening, and that's what this represents." - Donald Gregory (Tlingit), 2005.