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Description

Wooden double whistle carved in three sections from a single piece of wood and bound with string. [CAK 22/06/2009]

Longer Description

Wooden double whistle carved in three sections from a single piece of wood and bound with string. The instrument is narrowest at the mouthpiece. Inside the mouth piece, two windways are visible as is the fipple. The mouthpiece flares out slightly and is bound with string where it becomes the body of the instrument. A rectangular labium is present on each side of the whistle and these are almost as wide as the whistle. The area around each labium is squared. The body of the whistle is otherwise slightly rounded. A groove has been carved near the end of the whistle, and is filled with string binding the body of the whistle together. The end of the whistle is flat. The wood is yellow cedar and the string may be twine used in making sails. [CAK 13/05/2010]

Research Notes

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This whistle was viewed alongside other musical instruments on Thursday Sept 10, 2009. Candace Weir, Jason Alsop, Vernon Williams and Kwiaahwah Jones all played the whistle. A video of Kwiaahwah playing the flute can be seen in the Haida Project Digital Archive. Christian White identified the material as yellow cedar, and suspected the string around the end of the instrument was sail-making twine. He commented that whistles like this produce only two notes and that they were used in ceremonies by secret societies. Because these kinds of whistles are made from cedar, and come from a rainforest environment, delegates raised the question as to whether they museum should wet the whistles to keep them moist (and therefore maintaining the original size of the wood) as part of PRM's conservation practice. See also the notes for 1921.24.32. [CAK 13/05/2010]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - June 1921. Louis C. G. Clarke, Esq. M.A. - 1921.241, -242 [1 of] 2 wooden double whistles, Haida, Queen Charlotte Island.
Additional Accession Book Entry - Number given HLR.

Card Catalogue Entry - CANADA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, HAIDA INDIANS Wooden double whistle. Rounded shape, made of light wood bound with string top and bottom.

Pitt Rivers Museum label - [Related Documents File] Double whistle. HAIDA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE I. d.d. L. C. G. Clarke 1921. [LKG 26/06/2009]

Pitt Rivers Museum label - [Related Documents File] Double whistle. HAIDA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE I. d.d. G. C. G. Clarke 1921. [LKG 26/06/2009]

Written on object - Double whistle, HAIDA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ID Pres. by L. C. G. Clarke, 1921. [MJD 01/04/2009]

Written on object [in pencil] - Haida [MJD 01/04/2009]

Related Documents File - The Haida Project Related Documents File contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials. A video of Kwiaahwah Jones playing this flute can be seen in the Haida Project Digital Archive. [CAK 02/06/2010]

Item History

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