From card: "Carved head and portion of the shaft representing the head and body of a bird."

A wooden panel pipe or ship pipe. Has original Peale # label. Written on this pipe in old handwriting: "N. W. Coast - by R. R. Waldron Ex. Ex. b.17." This may mean that Richard Russell Waldron, purser, USS Vincennes, was the collector of this pipe.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: "WOOD INLAID WITH IVORY."

Carved brown wood figure reclining on one side, with large head resting on one arm bent at the elbow. The draping robe, earrings and ornate headdress made of numerous rose-like swirls have decorative painted red, black and gold accents.

From card: "Thick blue blanket stuff with broad border of broadcloth ornamented with applique designs of whales [sic], men, and seals [sic], and lines of pearl buttons. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned Jan 21 1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 221, p. 174."Blue and black-striped diagonal weave napped wool blanket with top and sides edged in appliqued band of red wool. Beige selvages on red wool are typical of a strouding trade blanket. Red wool shapes of standing bear(?) with arms spread, crosses, and 27 salmon(?) appliqued on as decoration. Small white shell buttons form rectangles, one within the other, in the center. Four large white shell buttons decorate centers of four crosses, and two more form eyes of the bear. White beads outline bear's figure. tabs with buttons on top edge may be device for a neck tie or for securingIllus. Fig. 221, p. 174 in Fitzhugh William W., Aron Crowell and National Museum of Natural History (U.S.). 1988. Crossroads of Continents : Cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there as Tsimshian: "As described in the Tsimshian myth of "The Prince Who Was Taken Away by the Spring Salmon" (Boas 1916: 192), each species of salmon has its own chief and village beneath the sea. When the cottonwood leaves fall into the Skeena River, it is a signal for the salmon to leave their villages and head upstream, led by their chief, the First Salmon. It is not known what myth is illustrated by this flannel-appliqued button blanket, but its humanoid central figure may represent a salmon chief. Alternatively, it may be the submarine monster Nagunaks ..."