FROM CARD: "ILLUSTRATED IN BARBEAU, "HAIDA MYTHS ILLUSTRATED IN ARGILLITE CARVINGS," NMC #127, P. 203 [Pl. 164]. 4/18/1967: LOAN TO VANCOUVER ART GALLERY. 12/13/67: LOAN RETURNED."Barbeau describes motifs on p. 207 and p. 228 of "Haida Myths Illustrated in Argillite Carvings" as thunderbird with curved or hooked bill/beak and closed wings in center; long protruding tongue linking two animals or people together; a frog; a bear swallowing an human head; one or two eagle, bear, or human profiles, together with stylized eyes and feathers. ILLUS. PL. 16, P. 54 IN "KADASHAN'S STAFF" BY ROBIN K. WRIGHT, AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE, VOL. 17, NO. 4, 1992, AND ID THERE AS ARGILLITE PIPE, HAIDA, COLLECTED BY WILKES EXPEDITION AT MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER IN 1841 FROM A HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY SHIP WHICH HAD JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO THE NORTH. WRIGHT ID'S CARVER OF PIPE AS PROBABLY SAME PERSON WHO CARVED PIPE CAT. NO. 2586, AND ILLUSTRATES OTHER STYLISTICALLY SIMILAR OBJECTS IN ARTICLE. Illus. Fig. 3.41, p. 156, and discussed p. 156-159 in Wright, Robin Kathleen. 2001. Northern Haida master carvers. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Wright speculates carver may be Albert Edward Edenshaw (gwaaygu 7anhlan)?Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition.

From card: "Beaver, raven and dog fish motifs." Illus. Pl. 302, p. 382 and described p. 389-392 and 410 in Barbeau, Charles Marius. 1953. Haida myths illustrated in argillite carvings. [Ottawa]: Dept. of Resources and Development, National Parks Branch, National Museum of Canada. Identified as (from top) shark, raven, beaver. Collected at Skidegate.

Both Swan's original tag with the artifact and the Anthropology catalogue ledger book identify this artifact as a "dancing skirt." This was mistranscribed on the catalogue card as a "dancing shirt." - F. Pickering 9-27-2006

From card: "One 10" boat paddle and one sail boat thwart 5 3/4" long (parts of northern type canoe) were transferred back to the Division of Ethnology from the Division of Engineering, January 25, 1934. 5/9/66 Summarized from fragments of a 'Swan' data card: This model and others are made to exact proportions of full length Haida canoes. They are exact representations of modern (1883) Haida canoes. GEP"

Illus. Pl. 61, p. 95 and described p. 147 in Bear Mother 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. Motifs identified there as "The Bear embraces the woman and projects his tongue into her mouth. Other stylized figures of the same early period." ILLUS. PL. 12, 13, AND 15, P. 53 IN "KADASHAN'S STAFF" BY ROBIN K. WRIGHT, AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE, VOL. 17, NO. 4 AND ID THERE AS ARGILLITE PIPE, HAIDA, COLLECTED BY WILKES EXPEDITION AT MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER IN 1841 FROM A HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY SHIP WHICH HAD JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO THE NORTH. IT IS LIKELY THAT IT WAS NEWLY CARVED AT THAT TIME. WRIGHT ID'S CARVER AS PROBABLY SAME PERSON WHO CARVED PIPE CAT. NO. 2587, AND ILLUSTRATES OTHER STYLISTICALLY SIMILAR OBJECTS IN ARTICLE. Illus. Fig. 3.40, p. 156, and discussed p. 156-159 in Wright, Robin Kathleen. 2001. Northern Haida master carvers. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Wright speculates carver may be Albert Edward Edenshaw (gwaaygu 7anhlan)?Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition.

From card: "Of black fine grained slate, slightly concave plain back, 3 animal figures carved in relief on front - one with speckled belly on bottom, surmounted by a beaver with cross-hatched tail and carrying logs in arms, topped by a raven. Donor collected this and next 1890 and considered them contemporary, but are well done and polished."

From card: "Illus. in USNM AR, 1888; Pl. 40, fig. 204; p. 316. Illus. in The Far North catalog, Nat. Gall. of Art, 1973, p. 175. From: page 49, Boxes and Bowls catalog; Renwick Gallery; Smithsonian Press; 1974, (object illus. on same page): "Animal-form bowl; wood; carved in relief, Length: 10; Haida, Skidegate, British Columbia; 'Food dish; mountain demon and crow'; Collected by James G. Swan; October 1883." Illus.: p. 195, Pl. 240c, Celebrations catalogue, Smithsonian Press, 1982; from Celebrations caption: "Crow Feast Dish, ca. 1850-83, 4 1/8 x 10 x 6 (10.5 x 25.4 x 15.3); Wooden bowls were used to serve seal oil and candlefish oil, two highly prestigious foods. This bowl shows two aspects of the human-spirit transformation: Crow with his human soul emerging from his mouth and the shared human-bird soul with its characteristic recurved beak in Crow's tail." Loaned R. H. Lowie Museum, 12-31-1964; returned 2-15-1966. Loaned: Vancouver Art Gall. 4-18-1967; returned 12-13-1967. Loaned to the National Gallery of Art, October 20, 1972; returned 5-29-1973. Loaned Renwick Gal. 11-7-1976; loan returned 8-24-1976. Loaned to Renwick 2-4-1982; returned 6-1983. Loaned to SITES- Treasures 5-10-1984; returned 11-21-1984." Jay Stewart and Peter Macnair 7-20-2005 identify this as oil dish; raven with human.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.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=633 , retrieved 2-4-2022: Bowl. On this feast dish for serving seal or eulachon (candlefish) oil, a carved Raven holds a small human figure in its beak, recorded by collector James G. Swan as the representation of a "mountain spirit." A hawk with a short, curved beak is depicted on Raven's tail. The bowl came from the Haida Gwaii village of Skidegate in 1884 [sic, should be 1883], and is still saturated with the oils it once contained.