Notes

FROM CARD: "SHIP'S BOTTOM COPPER SHEETING WITH NATIVE RIVETING. CONSISTS OF SHEET COPPER. 1-2 CM. IN THICKNESS JOINED BY COPPER RIVETS INTO FORM TYPICAL OF N.W. COAST INDIAN 'PROPERTY' SHIELDS. OUTLINE FORM ROUGHLY OBLONG WITH FLARING EDGES EXTENDING FROM CENTRAL TRANSVERSE MIDRIB TO TOP MARGIN. BOTH TOP & BOTTOM ARE CONVEXED DIAMOND-SHAPE. A SECOND REINFORCING MIDRIB EXTENDS LONGITUDINALLY FROM CENTER TO BASE. RIBS ARE 1-2 CM. DEEP V GROOVES OPENING ON REVERSE OF SHIELD. NO SUSPENSION LOOP OR ARM HOLD DESIGNS. DESIGN ETCHING ON OBVERSE. (TAKEN FROM AN EARLY LABEL:) NATIVE COPPER SHIELDS. THESE SHIELDS WERE THE MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION OF THE ALASKA NATIVE AND THEIR PRICE RECKONED IN SLAVES. ONE LIKE THIS WAS WORTH ABOUT FIVE SLAVES. WE HAVE QUESTIONED SEVERAL AUTHORITIES ABOUT THIS SHIELD AND THEY ALL SAY THAT IT IS UNDOUBTABLY MADE OF COPPER NUGGETS HAMMERED OUT FLAT AND RIVETED TOGETHER. ITS ORIGIN THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY. THE OWNER WAS A PRINCE OF WALES NATIVE. THE DAY AFTER HE SOLD IT TO US HE TRIED TO PERSUADE US TO TRADE BACK."See BAE 46th Annual Report, p. 35, where acquisition of this artifact is discussed. Ales Hrdlicka purchased this object (as well as E332801, discussed on p. 34) from Robert Simpson of The Nugget Shop, a curio shop in Juneau, Alaska. Purchased by Hrdlicka in 1926, presumably in June of that year as was E332801. The publication indicates that, according to Simpson, he purchased the copper in "Klawak, Prince of Wales Island."