Musical instrument

Item number 1951.6.53 from the Pitt Rivers Museum.

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Description

Large whistle carved from cedar wood and bound with cedar bark. [CAK 20/05/2010]

Longer Description

Large whistle carved from cedar wood and bound with cedar bark. This whistle duct flute is in two halves bound with four bands of cedar bark. The whistle is narrowest at the mouth piece. The two halves are bound once near the mouth piece, and then three more times below the labium. [CAK 20/05/2010]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - 'WELLCOME HISTORICAL MEDICAL MUSEUM, 28 PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, W.1...1951.6.53 NORTH AMERICA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, HAIDA INDIANS. Large wooden whistle, bound with 4 bark rings. Length 41.3 cm. Max. diam. (at distal end) 10.7 cm. (28241)' .
Added Accession Book Entry - 'v. Niblack - "Indians of the Northwest Coast". U.S. Nat. Mus. Rept. 1888 pl. LXII. fig. 333. "Dance whistle...on principle of policeman's whistle". (Almost certainly used to initiate voices of spirits in ceremonies, r. also Boas on Kwakiutl ha'matsa whistles in U.S.N.M. Rept. for 1895). (G.E.S.T.)' [CW 11 6 98]

Card Catalogue Entry - NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, BRITISH COLUMBIA, HAIDA Large wooden whistle, bound with 4 bark rings. Niblack calls this a 'Dance whistle...on principle of policeman's whistle.' Almost certainly used to imitate voices of spirits in ceremonies. (G.E.S. Turner)

Written on object - HAIDA Gift of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum [CAK 10/06/2009]

Related Documents File - Letter from E. Ashworth Underwood [Director, The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum] to T. K. Penniman dated 30 January, 1951, inviting the Pitt Rivers Museum to send a representative to select items from the Wellcome collection, housed temporarily at the British Museum. [GI 4/2/2002]

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 this flute being played by Vern Williams can be seen in the Haida Project Digital Archive. [CAK 02/06/2010]

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. Delegates called this instrument a whistle. Christian White identified the materials as cedar wood bound with cedar bark. He added that they were used by secret societies during their ceremonies. Vernon Williams sounded this whistle and produced a deep sound. A video of Vern playing this whistle can be seen in the Haida Project Digital Archive. He noted that he makes whistles and flutes like this today, and that they are still used, though not necessarily by secret societies. See also entries for 1921.24.31 and 1921.24.32. [CAK 20/05/2010]
This object was viewed and confirmed as Haida by tribal members Vincent Collison, Lucille Bell, and Kwiiawah Jones on 7 September 2007 in preparation for a planned Haida community visit to PRM in 2009 [L Peers, 24/01/2008]