Notes

FROM CARD: "...WHALE EFFIGY SET WITH ABALONE.=NISHGA (NISGA'A). WHALE EFFIGY: LOANED: 4/18/1967 VANCOUVER ART GALLERY. RETURNED: 12/12/1967. LOANED: NATL. INSTIT. OF HEALTH 5/1/71. RETURNED: 11/9/71. LOANED: WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART 9/10/1971. RETURNED: 2/9/72. LOANED TO THE S.I. CENTENNIAL COMM. 7-9-75. LOAN RETURNED MAR 22 1990. LOAN: CROSSROADS. SEP 22 1988. ILLUS. CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 374, P.273. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." "Amulet depicting a sea creature, probably a whale" according to Crossroads of Continents, illus. Pl. 231, p. 269. "Killer whale amulet made from walrus ivory."Described p. 302 in Barbeau, Charles Marius. 1953. Haida myths illustrated in argillite carvings. [Ottawa]: Dept. of Resources and Development, National Parks Branch, National Museum of Canada. Identified as bone carving with abalone shell inlays, representing the Killer-Whale with Gunarhnesemgyet on his head.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, entry on this artifact, listed as number E9813A, http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=507 retrieved 4-24-2012: Amulet, Tsimshian. The amulet portrays the story of Gunarhnesemgyet, whose wife is abducted by a white killer whale. As the whale speeds away from the village she shouts, "My people, come for me!" Gunarhnesemgyet follows in his canoe and eventually rescues her from the whale with the help of cormorants and the whale's servant, Gitsaedzan.