FROM CARD: "ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 100, PG. 3. IDENTIFIED THERE AS BARK PROCESSING TOOL OF PECKED STONE."

FROM CARD: "WOODEN." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "HARPOONS, LINES, AND FLOATS (3 MODELS).-HARPOON-HEADS HAVE COPPER BLADES, WITH IVORY WINGS OR BARBS; LINES, MADE OF TWISTED FIBER, SERVED WITH TWINE; FLOATS, WOOD CARVED IN IMITATION OF SEALSKIN BUOYS. MADE BY MAKAH INDIANS. NEAH BAY, WASHINGTON TER. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN."Anthropology catalogue ledger book notes that part of this object was exchanged with Trocadero Museum, July 1885.See Cat. 94 p. 188 in Faucourt, Camille. 2020. A La Conquête de l'Ouest : Collectes Amérindiennes de La Smithsonian Institution Conservées Au Musée Du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux. Entry is on Musee Du Quai Branly Catalog no. 71.1885.78.224, one wooden float model with harpoon line, which their records identify as formerly Smithsonian no. E4131.

From card: "For sewing work."Round container with baleen sides and wooden bottom; has a lid with wooden top and baleen sides. Resembles a round New England bentwood pantry box, with tacked/nailed joints. Box lid has two attached labels in James G. Swan's hand: "No 19 50¢. Masset B.C., Procured by J. G. Swan June 19, 1883", and "Whale bone box made by a Masset Indian and fastened with rivets of native copper in imitation of box made in Nantucket Mas."

Object was catalogued in ledger book as a skirt (i.e. apron). "Skirt" was mistranscribed as "shirt" on typed catalogue card. - F. Pickering 7-26-2005

Object has two catalogue cards. From older card: "Button Blanket, Dancing Shirt of "Bear Skin." Design - the totem of the bear. Very fine. Made of red wool, with design outlined in small white buttons." From newer card: "Appliqued tunic. Collector's tag: 'Dancing shirt of 'Bear Skin', a Skidegate chief of Haida Indians, Queen Charlotte Islands. July 1888. The design is the totem of the bear and is a fine specimen of Indian work. The effect when worn at night with torch or lamp light is very fine. Difficult to obtain. $25.00.' Red wool applique on dark blue blanket cloth with shell button outlining."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 the artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=645, retrieved 5-6-2012: Tunic, Haida. This late nineteenth-century dance tunic is made of red wool appliqué on black wool cloth and shows a bear crest design outlined in small shell buttons. The sleeves are red cotton with lace ruffles at the cuffs. Collector James Swan purchased it from Bear Skin, a Skidegate chief. Haida artists invented appliqué dance blankets and tunics around 1850, ornamenting them with dentalium shells, mother of pearl buttons, and squares of abalone shell. Florence Davidson said that they were first made in Masset after a missionary forbade the raising of totem poles; the blankets and tunics were an alternative way for people to show their clan crests.

From card: "Wood, ancient eagle head. 11 1/2 in. long. 12/19/66: Accounted for. - GP."E104638 - E104641 appear to be the same objects catalogued previously as E73822, part of Accession No. 15196, and described on catalogue card for that number as "Ancient Bone and Wood Instrument, 4; Upper Yukon River, Alaska; Used for trapping mink & martin; Av. [length] 10 1/2 in." E73822 does not have a culture identified on card, ledger book, or in accession record.

Catalog card says that this was sent as an exchange to F.W. Galpin in 1907, but this is apparently incorrect, since the whistle remains in the NMNH collection.

This is a model of the type of canoe called a Head canoe, with painted crests at bow and stern. As of 2011, there are 3 model paddles with this canoe model.Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. This model is possibly a feast dish and a prime example of a classic head canoe. It appears to be made by a person of Tlingit origin though it contains classic Bella Bella designs and sculpting. This object was probably made to be sold.