FROM CARD: "54153-5. #54153 - LENGTH - 21" WIDTH 6-1/2" HEIGHT 7"."See Brown, Steven C., 2000, "Turning the Tables: The Influence of Nineteenth-Century Southern Design Styles on the Northern Northwest Coast," American Indian Art Magazine, 25(3): 48-55. In the discussion in the article on Field Museum of Natural History housefront model and totem pole model Cat. No. 264015, in footnote # 2 on p. 55, Brown speculates on the artist who made it. He notes: "The identity of the artist who created this housefront is not yet certain. Contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artists have proposed three possibilities: Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim (both Tla'oquiaht [Clayoquot]) and Chel'tus (Ditidaht) (Black 1999:110). The writer's opinion leans toward Chel'tus, because masks more certainly attributed to Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim differ significantly in style from the former artist's apparent body of work." Brown goes on to list other artifacts he attributes to the same artist who created the Field Museum housefront model, including serpent mask # E54153 and humanoid face mask # E30210 as part of his work.

FROM CARD: "30209-11. LOCALITY: ALASKA (NOT ALL)*. REMARKS: ILLUS. IN BAE 3RD AR: #30210 ON PL. XIV, FIGS. 22, P. 173. NO. 30210 EXHIBIT HALL 9, 1987. IDENTIFIED IN EXHIBIT LABEL AS SUPERNATURAL MAN MASK, WESTCOAST (NOOTKA)."See Brown, Steven C., 2000, "Turning the Tables: The Influence of Nineteenth-Century Southern Design Styles on the Northern Northwest Coast," American Indian Art Magazine, 25(3): 48-55. In the discussion in the article on Field Museum of Natural History housefront model and totem pole model Cat. No. 264015, in footnote # 2 on p. 55, Brown speculates on the artist who made it. He notes: "The identity of the artist who created this housefront is not yet certain. Contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artists have proposed three possibilities: Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim (both Tla'oquiaht [Clayoquot]) and Chel'tus (Ditidaht) (Black 1999:110). The writer's opinion leans toward Chel'tus, because masks more certainly attributed to Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim differ significantly in style from the former artist's apparent body of work." Brown goes on to list other artifacts he attributes to the same artist who created the Field Museum housefront model, including serpent mask # E54153 and humanoid face mask # E30210 as part of his work.

FROM CARD: "AFTER AN EXTENSIVE SURVEY OF THE TOTEM POLES IN THE USNM COLLECTIONS, IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THIS SPECIMEN IS THE INTERIOR HOUSE POLE STORED IN THE E-WING BASEMENT. IT WAS APPARENTLY COLLECTED FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EXPOSITION OF 1876 AND CAN BE NOTED IN PHOTOS OF THAT EXHIBIT. IT WAS ORIGINALLY ACCESSIONED AS A HAIDA SPECIMEN BUT THIS IS PROBABLY AN ERROR. BOAZ, 1895 REPORT ON THE KWAKIUTL, PL. 36, CLEARLY SHOWS A SIMILAR INTERIOR HOUSE POST (DANCE HOUSE) AND THE TREATMENT OF THE SPECIMEN IS CONSISTENT WITH KWAKIUTL WORK. 6/6/68. APPARENTLY IN 1898 IT WAS NOTED THAT THIS SPECIMEN WAS NOT NUMBERED AND PRESUMABLY UNCATALOGED. ACCORDINGLY #178982 WAS ASSIGNED (DUPLICATIVE) WITHOUT DATA."Identified Nov. 1988 as an interior house post by Susan Rowley, Curator, Arctic & Public Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.This pole or house post appears to be the one on the right in engraving shown on p. 100 and captioned "The Indian Department, in the United States Government Building", in Norton, Frank H., and Frank Leslie. 1877. Frank Leslie's historical register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876. Embellished with nearly eight hundred illustrations drawn expressly for this work by the most eminent artists in America. Including illustrations and descriptions of all previous International exhibitions. New York: Frank Leslie's Pub. House. The pole on the left in the same engraving is E54298. On p. 106 of the publication, in the section on "Indian Curiosities", the text identifies both "totem posts" in the illustration as belonging to the "Mukah" (i.e. Makah) Indians. Note that the Library of Congress has a copy of this engraving and a thumbnail image is shown on their website here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005689180/ . E54298 had been identified in the records as Haida, but it is probable that E54301 is Makah. If it is Makah, it is also possible its catalogue number originally was E20901, rather than E54301, and it would have come as part of Accession 4730. (It is also possible this pole was catalogued twice; once when it first came into the collections, and then again later in 1882 with a group of other previously uncatalogued poles.) Swan identifies E20901 as a large Makah carved image. Swan's invoice notation (in accession papers for Acc. 4730) for the cost of the large shipping box used to ship E20901 notes that the box made to ship that artifact, along with 2 paddles, a bird spear, and a cane, was 11 feet long.This interior house post is similar in style to the ones depicted in a drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861; see the one on the left with the striped face which appears to match this house post. This drawing is illustrated on p. 81 of Miles, George A., James Gilchrist Swan, Franz Stenzel, and Kathryn M. Stenzel. 2003. James Swan, cha-tic of the Northwest Coast: drawings and watercolors from the Franz & Kathryn Stenzel collection of western American art. New Haven, Conn: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. The drawing and interior house posts are also discussed on pp. 23-24 of this publication, which notes that the one on the left in the drawing was shaped by a Ditidaht/Nitinaht artist from Vancouver Island.Aaron Glass, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Bard Graduate Center, 2012, doubts the Haida or Kwakiutl attributions that had been applied to this object. Robin Wright, Emerita Curator of Native American Art, Burke Museum, 2013, also does not think this is Haida or Kwakiutl: "Based on it's style alone, it would either be Nuu-chah-nulth [Nootka] or Makah. The face has a long sloping under brow plane and the eye is flat on the cheek plane, which are characteristics shared by the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth. So, [definitely] not Kwakwaka'wakw [Kwakiutl] or Haida. If Swan collected it, then Makah would be a likely source, although they in turn may have received it from a Nuu-chah-nulth carver." Wright in 2018 also noted that she believes this house post is the one shown in the drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861 (see above).

From card: "Made of cedar bark in checker weaving. Patterns formed by using strips of different widths." From Emmons tag with the artifact: ""Nitinat" Basket from the S.W. coast of Vancouver Id, made of the inner bark of the red cedar. This basket was in use when I got it packed with the gear of a seal fisherman, it was full of bark lines and extra pieces of spear +c. For Prof. O.T. Mason from G. T. Emmons." Also written in pencil on the tag at a later date: "Drag for harpoon line."