From card: "Collector's data, description and legend: "Model of totemic column in front of chief's house LASKEEK, Queen Charlotte Id., B.C. Carved by Johnny Kit Elswa, Haida interpreter for James G. Swan in 1883. The column of which this is a model was 40' high and 6' across at the base. top - raven HOOYEH fish eagle KOOT center - beaver TSCHING The head with diamond markings is the beaver tail. lower center - bear HOORTS and butterfly STLA-KWAN-MA bottom - bear's wife and young bear ITLTASDODA. James G. Swan, Port Townsend, W. T." 6/13/67 loaned to Nat'l Archives. Returned - 8/5/68".Per Robin Wright, Professor and Curator Emerita, University of Washington, 2018, James Swan's notes for this model pole by Johnny Kit Elswa don't specifically say it's Kitkun's house frontal pole, just a "chief's house." Technically there were several "chiefs" in this village, leaders of different clans. Kitkun was the chief of an Eagle clan (E3) "Those Born at Skedans". His clan had these crests: the multi-ringed dance hat (from the flood story), the dogfish, beaver, eagle, hummingbird, black whale, frog, cormorant, halibut, plus a few others. However, looking at the poles located around Kitkun's house in the village, none of them have beavers. The only beaver poles in the village are at the opposite end, in front of three other houses that belonged to the Djigua Town People E4 clan, which could use the same crests as E3. Therefore Wright thinks the pole E74748 might be based on one of these houses. See George MacDonald's Haida Monumental Art, houses 16, 20 and 23. The Department of Anthropology has one of those poles in the collection, E233398, collected by Newcombe in 1904.

FROM CARD: "THESE RATTLES ARE OF A SIMILAR CLASS TO 20.786, BUT THE STICK IS CARVED, ONE END TO REPRESENT THE HEAD AND BEAK OF A DUCK, THE NECK IN THE MIDDLE FORMS THE HANDLE AND THE OTHER END THE BACK WITH WINGS. IN THE LOWER EDGE OF THE BACK AND WINGS ARE DRILLED SMALL HOLES TO WHICH ARE ATTACHED BY SINEWS MORMON PUFFING [sic, should be puffin] BILLS. ILLUS. IN U.S.M. REPORT 1888 (NIBLACK) PL. LIV, NO. 289. LOANED TO THE DIVISION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 9/30/77. LOAN RETURNED 11/14/77. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. [E20828-0] ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG.375, P. 274. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 15E, PG.222. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads of Continents catalogue caption identifies E20828-0 as: Tlingit baton rattle. "Tufted puffin beaks were used on baton rattles such as ... [this one], carved as an abstract duck. Wings, tail, and head are detailed with formlines; the long neck forms the handle. Such rattles were used in sets by shamans and dancers," FROM OLD 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "RATTLE.---MADE OF WOOD AND CARVED. DESIGN, A DUCK, WITH ORNAMENTS OF THE BEAKS OF THE PUFFIN. KLOWAK INDIANS (KOLUSCHAN STOCK), PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, ALASKA. 20,828. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN."Anthropology catalogue ledger book identifies Catalogue #s E20827 and E20911 as Swan original # 61. List in accession file identifies # 61 as "1 box containing complete outfit of an Indian medicine man, Hannegan Indians, Klawark village, P. of Wales Island, Alaska." Catalogue Nos. E20828 - 38 may be related objects?

FROM CARD: "BASKET. 1 GIFT TO ROCHESTER ATHENAEUM & MECHANICS INSTITUTE, FEB. 14, 1903. ONE-EXCHANGE-MR. G. D. E. SCHMELTZ LEIDEN MUSEUM, LEIDEN HOLLAND. MAY 1899."

Originally listed in Anthropology catalogue ledger book as dance skirt and leggings. At some point when the catalogue card was typed, only the pair of leggings was listed. However all 3 parts are present as of 2003.

TIGHTLY WOVEN, SINGLE-PAIR WRAPPED TWINE HAT WITH A WIDE BRIM AND A HIGH CYLINDRICAL TOP, PROBABLY MADE OF SPRUCE ROOT. THE HAT IS MADE IN THE FORM OF A EUROPEAN WOMAN'S STRAW POKE BONNET OF THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY. HAS ORIGINAL PEALE TAG, WRITTEN ON HAT, "WILKES 343 OREGON". PUBLICATION: ILLUS. IN THE "NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION," CHARLES WILKES, 1845, VOL. V, P. 158. EXHIBITED MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 1985-86. EXHIBITED SITES "MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS," 1987-89.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.Identified as of probable Haida manufacture, based on the start, by Haida artists (basketmaker and textile weaver) Delores Churchill and Evelyn Vanderhoop, 2015.

Shgen George, weaver, Shirley Kendall, elder, and Florence Sheakley, elder, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. This blanket has a diving whale design. The white faces are not typical to this design, but the center bottom design is. The sharpness of the fringe suggests to Schgen that this was made in 1970s. On this object the side braids are attached on the side, not the top, which is unsual and it's not clear why they were attached this way. Shirley heard from another weaver that the white face may indicate this is alive or a spirit. She commented that there are concerns about using these designs in regalia, and that they shouldn't be separated from their bodies if they are the spirit.According to Gwen Sauser during visit on 8/29/24, this object was possibly weaved by Jennie Thlunaut, who used blue-yellow checkerboard pattern as her signature.

SI ARCHIVE DISTRIBUTION DOCUMENTS SAY [how many?] SENT TO AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, 1885.Listed on page 49 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 (Tools)".