FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "EAR-RINGS (2).---SILVER; PENDANT TO HOOKS ARE BELL-BUTTON OR ACORN-SHAPED ORNAMENTS, NEATLY ENGRAVED. HAIDAH INDIANS, PRINCE OF WALES ARCHIPELAGO. EXTREME LENGTH, 1 3/8 INS. LENGTH OF PENDANT, 13/16 IN. ALASKA, 1875. 19,549. COLLECTED BY J. G. SWAN."

Catalog number 88960 [part numbers E88960-0 through E88960-3] are four hats of a similar style. One of the four hats is illustrated (small) as Hat 112, p. 221 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006.

From card: "Label reads "Haida Indians, Queen Charlotte Indians". Collector's description on reverse. Illus. in The Far North catalog, Nat. Gall. of Art, 1973, p. 272. 4/17/67: loan data: worm holes - ok, some splits. 4/18/67: loaned to Vancouver Art Gall. 12/13/67: returned by Vancouver. Loaned to the National Gallery of Art October 20, 1972. Returned 5-29-73. Loaned to Renwick Gallery 2/11/82. Returned 1983. Lent to Canadian Embassy, Nov. 19, 1991. Loan returned Nov. 20, 1991. Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 14 right, pg. 253." Handbook of North American Indians caption: Ceremonial staff. Wand of office held by a chief when giving out gifts at the potlatch. When a recipient was named, the staff was thumped on the floor boards. Staff carved in 2 jointed sections. Whe pulled apart at the socket, the chief retaining one section in each hand, the distribution of presents began (Niblack 1890:272). Collected by J.G. Swan at Masset, B.C., 1883; length 82.2 cm.From second card: "Collector's description: "Taski or carved cane held by chief when distributing presents, formerly highly valued". Upper - whale & crow. Middle - sparrohawk Skamison. Lower - beaver eating mouse. "Taski very ancient, carved to represent one of the columns in front of chiefshouse. This is in two sections, one fitting in a socket to the other. Held in chiefs hand as a baton or wand of office while distributing presents." - Swan's invoice and descriptive catalogue.. [From Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual, exhibit catalogue for Renwick Gallery exhibit, 1982-83:] Speaker's Staff, ca. 1830-60, ... wood, 32 3/8 x 2 (82.2 x5). Men of position often kept speakers to make their public announcements, such as calling out recipients' names at potlatches. Professional speakers carreid staffs like the one shown here, but this particular staff was used by a chief himsel when distributing gifts. In traditional Northwest Coast Indian societies, where all legitimacy came from the past, a chief stood as symbol of his house, and the carved speaker's staff he or his representative held signified his authority - analogously to the way a totem pole signified the authority of the house it stood beside. Holding such a staff indicated that the power to distribute gifts in the present derived from events that occurred in the mythic past. This particular staff, which is incomplete, shows (top to bottom) figures of Raven, Whale, Crow, Sparrowhawk, Beaver, and Mouse."SI ARCHIVE DISTRIBUTION DOCUMENTS SAY SENT TO PEABODY MUSEUM, HARVARD, MASS. 1887.

FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN USNM AR 1888, PL. 16, FIG. 59, P. 270. [Identified in USNM AR 1888 as "Mask. Representing Hooyeh, the raven, with bow and arrow of copper in his mouth..."] '... CROW AS A MAN WITH COPPER BOW AND ARROW IN ITS MOUTH.' - SWAN'S DESC. CAT. 9/8/1970 LOANED TO NAT. GALL. ART. 9/22/1970 RETURNED FROM NGA." IDENTIFIED AS MASK COMBINING RAVEN AND KILLER WHALE ELEMENTS, BELLA BELLA, ON P. 189 IN DOWN FROM THE SHIMMERING SKY BY PETER MACNAIR, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, 1998.Mask is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Appendage (long orca/killer whale fin) not included in loan. Per 2009 Anthropology Conservation Treatment report by Landis Smith: Research indicates strongly that the long orca/killer whale fin fringed with human hair that extended from the back of the "cage" of the mask was most likely added after collection and not originally associated with the other part of the headdress. It has therefore been removed for exhibit, as per curatorial/conservator's judgment. The fin had been attached to the bentwood "cage" of frame of mask with waxed thin cordage, or "fake sinew " - this was added in 1998 for an exhibit. Previously the fin was attached with wire (see ACL Conservation Treatment Report 4/1998).Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on the mask http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=631 , retrieved 5-9-2012: Mask, Haida. This mask of a bird with copper bow and arrows in its beak may represent a story from Haida tradition. The sky god, Shining Heavens, is raised by the daughter of a chief; when she makes him a bow and arrows from her copper bracelets, he shoots a wren, a cormorant, and a blue jay, putting on the skins to become different kinds of clouds in the sky. Copper ornaments on the mask may be stars.

From card: "Totem post for house."Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=635 , retrieved 2-2-2022: House (model) Haida houses were monumental constructions - massive posts and beams, walls planked with cedar, roofs made of bark slabs, and sleeping platforms that ranged in tiers around a deeply sunken central hearth. A smoke hole in the roof gave ventilation and light. On many houses the entryway passed through the base of a pole that displayed clan crests. Crests shown on the model include, from top to bottom, Grizzly Bear, Raven stealing the moon, Beaver, and Mountain Goat. Artists made miniatures of actual houses for museum collectors, and this one may represent Grizzly Bear House at Skidegate.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Listed on page 43 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes".

From card: "Beaver, bear, and raven motifs."

From card: "Haida. Central motif depicts a halibut and a raven. Edge of plate has inlaid triangles of abalone shell." Illus. Pl. 153, p. 186 and described p. 195 in Yehl, The Raven chapter of Barbeau, Charles Marius. 1953. Haida myths illustrated in argillite carvings. [Ottawa]: Dept. of Resources and Development, National Parks Branch, National Museum of Canada. Identified there as "An oval dish decorated in low relief with the Halibut. On this fish, in higher relief, the raven lies with his wings rolled up, to show that he is within the Halibut after putting on the fish skin. In this guise the Raven once travelled round the southern parts of the Queen Charlotte Islands, fighting monsters. The remaining space in the dish is covered with decorative designs: eyes, ears. Triangular inlays of abalone shells dot the ribbon border of the dish. This is Skidegate work. ... 16 1/2" long x 10" across, very shallow. The high point of the centre carries it even with the rim. No lathe marks. Bottom plain." Illus. Pl. 58, p. 47 in Barbeau, Marius. 1957. Haida carvers in argillite/ Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, National Museum of Canada. Barbeau attributes to carver Tom Price. "The eagle with folded wings in high relief at the centre of the plate lies on the Halibut."

From card: "4 men in a canoe. Loan: R. H. Lowie Museum 12/31/64. Loan returned Feb 15, 1966. Lent to Canadian Embassy, Nov. 19, 1991. Loan returned Nov. 20, 1991."On display in NMNH Sant Ocean Hall. 2014 exhibit caption identifies this as an argillite carving of 4 hunters in a Native canoe, Haida. One of the hunters holds a harpoon, and they are hauling a seal into the canoe.

From card: "Central motif - reverse, copy of a U.S. coin including a San Francisco mint mark. Loaned to NMAH Political History Division 6-19-1974, returned 4/13/1981." The San Francisco mint first opened in 1854. Per Jay Stewart and Peter Macnair 7-20-2005, design on this argillite dish or plate is U.S. silver dollar motif depicting a Heraldic eagle grasping a bundle of arrows and an olive branch. May be Haida?

Carved decoration. Jackson is an alternate name for Howkan, Alaska, which is a Haida town.