Notes

PEALE # 301. CHIEF'S HEADDRESS WITH A CAP MADE OF DEER SKIN, AND A FRONTLET WHICH IS AN INLAID AND PAINTED MASK. THERE IS A LONG CLOTH TRAILER AT THE BACK, AND THE REMAINS OF FEATHERS, THE QUILLS AND DOWN AROUND THE TOP AND SIDES. HAS ORIGINAL PEALE TAG, ALSO WRITTEN ON MASK "NOOTKA SOUND, JL FOX". VIOLA & MARGOLIS, "MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS," 1985, ILLUS. P. 141. THIS FRONTLET & HEADDRESS WERE RECATALOGUED WITH #72969, & A NOTATION READS, "REENTERED, SEPTEMBER 24, 1883"- THE PIECE NO LONGER HAS THIS NUMBER IN IT, BUT RETAINS ITS ORIGINAL NUMBERS. THIS RECATALOGING WAS APPARENTLY DONE AFTER THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION IN PHILADELPHIA. ON THE RETURN PERHAPS ITS TAG HAD BEEN LOST. EXHIBITED MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 1985-86.FROM CARD: "INLAID WITH ABALONE SHELL. MARKED "NOOTKA SOUND" WITH ORIGINAL NUMBER. HOWEVER, THE ORIGINAL NUMBER APPEARS TO BE 301 NOT 296. ACCORDING TO THE 'PEALE' CATALOG THIS SHOULD BE 296 [?]."Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition. The fact that this is marked "Nootka sound.", i.e. possibly Nootka?, is evidence for the HBC as the source of this mask.