Provenience note: Anthropology catalogue ledger book lists a locality of Alaska for E67931 - 68019. Catalogue cards list a locality of Sitka. Alaska. It is unclear which is correct, though it is probable that the collection was purchased in Sitka.

From card: "After an extensive survey of the totem poles in the USNM collections, it seems likely that this specimen is the 'door post' presently on exhibit near the entrance to Halls 9 and 11. It was probably collected for the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition and may be one of the poles obtained from the HBC trader at Ft. Simpson. Based on the USNM NW Coast collection and current NW Coast literature, the treatment of this specimen resembles Tsimshian work. 6/6/68 GP. Earlier opinions have been noted as follows: 1962 - V. Garfield.........Tlingit. M. Barbeau..........S. Tlingit or N. Haida. W. Holm.............Tlingit. G. MacDonald - Tsimshian."From card: "In 1990 this totem pole is on exhibit in Natural History Museum exhibit Hall 9/11 with the following label: "totem pole, probably Tlingit, Southeast Alaska. This tall cedar pole with a doorway at the bottom stood at the entrance to a Northwest Coast Indian home. The animals at the bottom are a grizzly bear and a killer whale. The figures at the top are called "watchmen.""The original shipping labels are still attached to the back of this pole. A comparison was made of the numbers on these invoices with Swan's journal (Swan's papers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Swan's correspondence with Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Baird in the Smithsonian Archives). In the James Swan papers in the University of Washington's Special Collections a voucher was found dated April 15 1875 which read "To 1 carved column from Fort Simpson, BC in 4 packages marked No 11J 1 to 4, $100". 11J is the only pole that Swan shipped in 4 sections and the Smithsonian pole is in 4 sections. These shipping records now lead us to believe that Swan obtained this pole from Fort Simpson in British Columbia and the pole was most likely made by the Tsimshian people. George F. MacDonald of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies at SFU has been working with the Tsimshian for many years and had been studying the poles of Fort Simpson. He pointed out several images, starting with an 1854 engraving of house fronts in Fort Simpson, that show what we believe to be the house with the pole in front of it. The engraving is of an 1852-1854 drawing by a member of the Virago crew done while they repaired their keel at Fort Simpson. There is also an 1867 sketch by Emil Teichmann, a drawing by Edwin Augustus Porcher from 1867 of the village of Lax Kw'alaams, and a George Horetzsky photograph of Fort Simpson in 1873. George MacDonald was trying to figure out why the pole had Haida style watchmen on top, when the 1854 Virago crewmember's drawing does not show watchmen. In the 1867 sketch by Emil Teichmann, the pole has watchmen on top. George MacDonald knew from other records that Haida had moved nearby around that time and he knew at least one Tsimshian chief had added watchmen to a Tsimshian pole out of influence from the Haida. Tlingit artists George and James Bennett and Tommy Joseph examined the pole and they all concluded that the wood of the watchmen are different pieces than the wood of the pole under it and they were added as a set long ago. See Anthropology Collections Lab accession file for additional information.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=53 , retrieved 3-12-2012: Totem pole.A photo of this totem pole (in front of house front # E410732) outside the building at 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is in the Free Library of Philadelphia collections and is available online: Centennial Photographic Co.. Indian curiosities from Puget Sound [sic]. Stereoviews. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/1949. (accessed Feb 25, 2018).

LEDGER SAYS SENT TO GEORGE HEYE, NEW YORK, 1908.Anthropology catalogue ledger book identifies this object as Chilcat. It appears that Chilcat may be meant as a place name in this collection, perhaps not specifically or exclusively as a culture name, similar to the way other objects in the collection are identified as Sitka, Kootzahoo, and Hoonyah. Chilcat/Chilkat is a name sometimes used for Klukwan.

FROM CARD: "ANTIQUE. 4/18/1967: LOANED TO VANCOUVER A. G.; 12/13/1967 RETURNED BY VANCOUVER."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 does not feature a diving whale design, which is different from other similar blankets in the collection. This design features a creature with an ear and claws. The splitting in this blanket as it degrades is where the drawstrings were that the weaver used to draw together the stitches. This blanket had side braids that are no longer present.

FROM CARD: "WOVEN FROM GOAT FLEECE WITH PAINTED (DYED) DESIGNS IN BLACK, YELLOW AND GREEN. TWO ROWS OF PUFFIN BEAK BEADS AT ENDS OF BUCKSKIN FRINGE BORDER. RARE AND VALUABLE SPECIMEN. 4/18/1967: LOANED TO VANCOUVER ART GALL., 12/13/1967 RETURNED BY VANCOUVER. LOAN CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988, LOAN RETURNED JAN 21, 1993. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 290, P. 219." FROM CROSSROADS CATALOGUE: "A WRAPAROUND APRON AND DECORATED LEGGINGS WERE OFTEN WORN BY THE NOBILITY ALONG WITH A CHILKAT BLANKET ON CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS. THE WOVEN PIECES OF THIS SET (OF DANCE APRON AND LEGGINGS) WERE ORIGINALLY PART OF A SINGLE BLANKET DEPICTING A DIVING KILLER WHALE, WHICH WAS PROBABLY CUT UP AND DISTRIBUTED TO GUESTS DURING A GREAT MEMORIAL POTLATCH. THE WOVEN PIECES HAVE BEEN EXTENDED WITH TRADE BLANKET MATERIAL AND BORDERED WITH SKIN FRINGES. PUFFIN BEAKS ATTACHED TO THE FRINGES RATTLED TOGETHER WITH THE MOVEMENTS OF THE DANCER."" Leggings illus. Fig. G, after p. 48 in The Chilkat Dancing Blanket, by Cheryl Samuel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.Description: Wraparound leggings decorated with a stylized formline design woven in white, black, blue, and yellow dyed wool. The woven piece has been widened by the addition of wool trade blanket material and bordered with skin fringes. Puffin beaks are attached to the fringes. Materials and Construction: Wool, cotton, cedar bark, hide, and Puffin beaks were used to fabricate the leggings. Fitzhugh and Crowell suggest that the leggings were once part of a larger Chilkat blanket, which was probably cut up and distributed to guests during a great memorial potlatch. The cut edges of the woven fabric are trimmed with black silk piping. Rectangular black wool panels have been sewn to the sides of the leggings. A strip of hide is sewn along the sides of each legging and cut into a fringe. Puffin beaks have been stitched to the inside edge of the hide, adjacent to the weaving and make a rattling sound when the leggings move. One of the leggings has a narrow strip of hide sewn to the top of the legging which has also been cut into fringe. A single Puffin beak is sewn into one end of the hide fringe in this area. The bottom edge of the leggings taper to a fish tail like extension that would partially cover the top of the foot. Hide and canvas strips, sewn at the top, middle and bottom of each side were used to tie the leggings to the wearer.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=349 , retrieved 11-29-2011: Leggings These dance leggings, like the accompanying apron, feature pieces that were cut from a Chilkat-style mountain goat wool blanket. Sections from the original weaving were sewn onto commercial wool cloth and decorated with puffin beaks and leather fringes. The tail-shaped flaps at the bottom of the leggings rested on top of the dancer's moccasins.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. E341202-0 Apron and E341202-1 Leggings are both on loan.

From card: "Front made of skin from deer legs with dewclaws attached. Red cloth at top with decoration in white, blue and green beads. Bound at edges with black cloth decorated with beads, mostly yellow."This wall pocket was originally catalogued as Northern Woodlands but has been stored with the Tlingit collections for many years. Compare to Tlingit wall pockets Fig. 1.6 - Fig. 1.8, pp. 48 -49, in Smetzer, Megan A. 2021. Painful Beauty : Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience. Seattle: Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art, Burke Museum : University of Washington Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/85691/ .