Wooden Mask, Human Face

Item number E74341-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

From card: "Carved from the solid. Hardwood. Pained in green, vermillion and black. Hair tufts (now missing) inserted in a series of holes extending over apex of crown from ear to ear. Teeth, apparently of a white shell inserted in excavated trenches in upper and lower jaws. Illus. in USNM AR 1888, Pl. XIII, fig. 42, p. 270." Identified in the publication as a wooden helmet. Per Tommy Joseph, 6-2-2009, helmet is in form of a human with shark characteristics, including eyes with downturning outer corners, and gills, and back of helmet has carved shark formline imagery.Florence Sheakley, elder, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. Florence belives the owner of this helmet was Shark clan.