From card: "Stiff band of barked [sic, should be bark] covered by diagonal wrapping of cedar bark cord, and tufted band of same at the upper edge. At rear two bands of cedar cords crossed over a bunch frayed cedar bark from an ornament. Worn in ceremonies."

FROM CARD: "AFTER AN EXTENSIVE SURVEY OF THE TOTEM POLES IN THE USNM COLLECTIONS, IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THIS SPECIMEN IS ONE OF THE POLES PRESENTLY ERECTED IN THE OLD ART HALL. IN ACCESSION RECORDS #4686 THERE IS REFERENCE TO NOTES FROM A 'SWAN' LTR DTD. 10 JAN 76 WHICH DESCRIBES A 30' POLE (PRESUMABLY) ACQUIRED FROM THE HBC AT FT. SIMPSON BUT POSSIBLY ACTUALLY PURCHASED AT VICTORIA? M. BARBEAU (P. 382-3) DESCRIBES THIS SPECIMEN AS TSIMSHIAN-PORT SIMPSON, CA. 1860-70, SUMMARIZING FROM 'BOAZ', TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY, P. 506. NEW NEG. NOS. ON BACK OF CARD. AND PL. 1., FROM FIELD DATA COLL. ABOUT 1889. BOAZ ASCRIBES AN EARLIER DATE FROM AN ADDITIONAL REFERENCE, P. 506, NOTE 1, CA. MID 1850'S. APPARENTLY THIS SPECIMEN, ORIGINAL OR NOT, WAS COLLECTED BY SWAN FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EXPOSITION OF 1876 AND CAN BE NOTED IN PHOTOS OF THAT EXHIBIT. ADDITIONAL NOTES FROM SWAN LTRS MENTION THAT THE POLE WAS SECTIONED FOR SHIPMENT AND COST $120. A LTR. FROM BARBEAU DTD. SEPT. 19, 1962 WOULD SEEM TO INDICATE HE HAD CHANGED HIS OPINION FROM THAT STATED IN HIS TOTEM POLES, P. 382-3 AND P. 432. THE ORIGINAL TSIMSHIAN IDENTIFICATION IS RETAINED IN LIEU OF CONTRARY EVIDENCE. 6/6/68 GP. PHOTOGRAPHS OF TOTEM POLE TAKEN IN SECTIONS: (BLACK AND WHITE) NEG. NOS. MNH 2339; 2340; 2342; 2343; 2344; 2345. 11-6-[19]75 LOANED TO THE 1876 - CENTENNIAL EXHIBIT, A & I - CENTER POLE. LOAN RETURNED SEP 1990. 1990 - THIS POLE ON EXHIBIT IN NHB CONSTITUTION AVE. LOBBY STAIRWELL - CENTER POLE. 1991 EXHIBIT LABEL IDENTIFIED POLE AS WESTERN RED CEDAR (THUJA PLICATA). CARVINGS ARE IDENTIFIED AS (FROM TOP): BEAR MOTHER; THUNDERBIRD; CUTTING-NOSE OR MOSQUITO; GRIZZLY BEAR."From 2009 exhibit labels: Pole identified as carved from Western red cedar (Thuja plicata). Tsimshian Totem Pole, collected in 1876, Port Simpson, British Columbia, Canada. Crests, from top: Bear Mother, Thunderbird, Cutting-Nose or Mosquito, Grizzly Bear. Exhibit label includes a copy of a lithograph, which first appeared in 1854, which shows this totem pole standing by a Tsimshian house in Port Simpson. Source of lithograph is uncredited in the exhibit label. A separate label for the pole tells the story of Long Sharp-Nose. Also, the hooked nose crest identified in the first label as Thunderbird, is identified in this one as crest of Long Sharp-Nose. "Story of Long Sharp-Nose. Long Ago the People were celebrating the end of a successful fishing season. The children were noisy and woke the Chief of the Sky. Annoyed, he sent for them. to scare them into silence, he had Long-Sharp-Nose cut each child in two. Finally only a brave girl, who didn't cry, was left. Long Sharp-Nose struck her ... and broke apart. The brave girl married the Sky Chief's son and returned to earth with her husband and child. This story belongs to the Wolf clan of the Tsimshian people."Per Robin Wright, Professor and Curator Emerita, University of Washington, 2018, pole # E23550 was exhibited in 1876 in the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Swan collected it from Fort Simpson, B.C. in 1875. It is shown in an 1867 watercolor of Ft. Simpson by Edwin Augustus Porcher in the Beinecke Library at Yale: 51. Ft. Simpson On the North Extreme of British Columbia. June 13, 1867, From: Edwin Augustus Porcher HMS Sparrowhawk diary and watercolor drawings, 1865-1868, WA MSS S-1972, https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3433378 .A photo of this pole on display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Archives: Photo ID 72-2383, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 285, Box 26, Folder: 5, https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_9960 . A print showing this pole on display at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is in the Free Library of Philadelphia collections and is available online: Centennial Exhibition 1876 Philadelphia Scrapbook. Scrapbooks. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/2406. (accessed Feb 25, 2018).

FROM CARD: "OVOID-SHAPED; TWO PIECES OF CARVED WOOD JOINED WITH LEATHER THONGS. ANTHROPOMORPHIC FACE WITH FROGS ON THE FOREHEAD AND CHEEKS. "A REPRESENTATION OF HOW FROGS AND TOADS COME WITH THE RAIN. FROGS ARE SHOWN SPRINGING FROM THE EYES OF T'KUL, THE SPIRIT OF THE WIND." SEE: USNM AR 1888, PL. 58, FIG. 306, P. 330; AND PL. 60, FIG. 318."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=520, retrieved 3-31-2012: Rattle, Tsimshian. Frogs appear often on shamanic art because they were imagined as primordial, partly human creatures that retained supernatural power from early times. They lived in the dark before Raven brought the sun, and they made fun of the great trickster; in anger he caused the North Wind to blow the frogs away and freeze them onto rocks. This shaman's rattle shows frogs that appear with the rain, springing from the eyes of South Wind, who brings rain and desires the world to be green as in spring. The back of the rattle shows the wind's arms, legs, and body. “He is showing this look, like a trance; the eyes are underneath the lids, rolled back. Having these frogs come out, too – frogs were the shaman's messengers.” - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.

FROM CARD: "INLAID WITH SHELL. INVENTORIED 1979." FROM OLD 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "BRACELET.---MADE OF HORN AND INLAID WITH PIECES OF ABALONE SHELL, HALIOTIS KAMSCHATKENSIS. NASSES [NASS] INDIANS NEAR FORT SIMPSON. GREATEST DIAM., 3 INS. LEAST DIAM., 2 INS. BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1876. 20,638. COLLECTED BY J. G. SWAN."

This amulet marked with (incorrect?) number 9819

FROM CARD: "THUNDER BIRD ORNAMENT. ??? ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; PL. 28, FIG. 132, P. 286. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 313, P. 234. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads catalogue caption identifies as "War Club, Tsimshian? Few weapons rival the elegance of this fine wooden club, with the raven's beak for a striking point. The form was probably derived from the antler club of the Athapaskans .... Two frogs crouch flanking the grip and another, topped with a reclining human figure, caps the club. Between his folded wings, the raven grasps another, inverted human. Abalone shell once glittered in the wing feathers. Such clubs were once true weapons, and later were used as emblems of chiefly rank. It is said they were sometimes used to kill slaves on ceremonial occasions."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=46, retrieved 3-31-2012: Ceremonial War Club, Tsimshian. Designs carved on this polished wooden club include Raven and three Frogs. Although recorded by collector James Swan as an “ancient war club,” it was probably a ceremonial weapon used during initiation rituals of the Tsimshian Destroyer society, called Wi'-nanal (meaning "strong breath"). Novices underwent a ritual of possession by the protector spirit of the cult. While possessed they destroyed canoes, boxes, and other property using wooden clubs decorated with crest designs. The Tsimshian apparently adopted the Destroyer cult and other secret societies from the Bella Bella. "This is an amazing carving…These are probably potlatch rings above Raven's head. Below is a human figure between his wings. You see a lot of this kind of design on shamans' things, where they are riding in a canoe, going to the spirit world. Maybe Raven is that canoe." - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.

From card: "Cigar-shape NW Coast, this is probably the point [barb] to hook #359486. GEP".