FROM CARD: "CARVED WOOD RATTLE IN THE FORM OF A HUMAN HEAD COVERED WITH MYTHOLOGICA DESIGNS IN BOTH RELIEF AND INTAGLIO AND PAINTED RED, GREEN, AND BLACK. ACCORDING TO BOAS THE DESIGN IS THE KILLER WHOLE [sic, should be whale] AND IT IS USED IN THE SECRET SOCIETIES. ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1895; FIG. 210, P. 657. LOANED TO THE S.I. CENTENNIAL COMM. 7-9-75. LOAN RETURNED MAR 22 1990. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 6, PG. 319." Identified in Handbook caption as carved wooden rattle. "A human figure at the top lies with his back to the killerwhale that encircles the rattle. The whale's dorsal fin rises from the back of the figure's head. Carved features are painted in red, green, and black. This specimen, said to have been the property of a "medicine man," was used in the secrect societies according to Boas (1897:654)."Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) and Jennifer Kramer (anthropologist) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. The name sounds and reads Haida. It appears to be yew. It does not seem to be extremely old because it contains canvas and string, as opposed to hide.

From card: "Inlaid with bone. Carved from fine black slate. Decoration two snakes in relief around border; edge flat inlaid with triangular pieces of bone. In concave of bowl running design of wheel and three leaves; circular area in bottom bordered with rope, middle area a sunburst set with triangles of bone. The work is like that on Wilkes and Gibbs pipes from Puget Sound and Vancouver I. Probably Russian influence. Specimen is old and good."

From card: Northwest Coast, Haida?? Possibly collected by James G. Swan?? Painted blue motifs similar to "Emmons", 1888, Pl. LII, attributed to 'Johnnie Kit Elswa', a Haida Indian. Johnny Kit Elswa was Swan's assistant and helped him collect objects, as well as being an artist himself. - F. Pickering, 2009This may indeed have been drawn by Johnny Kit Elswa. Compare the style to examples of his work in The Dr. Franz R. and Mrs. Kathryn M. Stenzel collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Series II. See in particular "The man in the moon. Haida mythology. Pen-and-ink drawing", https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2003286 .An illustration showing the same design as on this object is visible in a Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904, USNM Neg. No. 16462, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 62B, Folder 12, Image No. SIA_000095_B62B_F12_008 .

From card: "Red on blue octopus motif. A, B, C. trimmed with puffin beaks."

From card: "Made of walrus tooth, used by old Nokutsoot of Masset and sold by him to me [Swan.]" See also related object E88748.

FROM CARD: "THESE ARTICLES WERE RETURNED FROM THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION WITHOUT MARKS. 1 ILLUS. IN PROCEEDINGS, USNM, VOL. 60; P1. 25, NO. 3; P48. *STORED AS MAKAH (NOOTKA) NW COAST BECAUSE OF RESEMBLANCE TO USNM #4122 (MAKAH-J.G.SWAN)."

From card: "Illus. in USNM AR, 1888, Fig. 75, p. 273. Red on blue motifs, poncho type. killer whale motifs. Collector's tag: "Blue blanket embroidered with the Scana or Killer [killer whale; orca] in red cloth. Skidegate, B.C. 1883."