Accession No
1926.225
Description
Totem pole carved with crest figures, previously belonging to the family of Paul Jones. At the top is an eagle sitting on top of the potlatch rings of a skil property hat, then a thunderbird on a killerwhale and a small humanoid face, possibly that of the strongman who battled with killerwhales. The base figure is a beaver with a chewing stick.
Place
Americas; North America; Canada; British Columbia; Haida Gwaii [Queen Charlotte Islands]; Moresby Island; Tanu
Period
Source
Newcombe, Charles F. [collector]; Newcombe, William [collector]; Glaisher, James Whitbread Lee (Dr) [donor]; Jones, Paul [vendor]
Department
Anth
Reference Numbers
1926.225
Cultural Affliation
Northwest Coast; Haida
Material
Wood; Cedar; Wood, pigment, metal
Local Term
Measurements
700mm x 14000mm x 1300mm
Events
Context (Field collection)
Collected by Dr Charles F. Newcombe in 1925
Event Date 1925
Author: rachel hand
Context (Display)
Exhibited: Permanently on display, reaching into both galleries of CUMAA since 1926
Event Date 1926
Author: rachel hand
Context (References)
Marius Barbeau (1950,reprinted 1990) Totem Poles: According to Crests and Topics (Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilisation), pp. 122-125
Event Date 1950
Author: rachel hand
Context (Acquisition Details)
The confusion over the Bushnell and Barbeau's description could have arisen because it belongs to a pole which CUMAA was going to purchase but instead was sold to a museum in Milwaukee.
'In 1925 Newcombe wrote to Dr. A.C. Haddon explaining that he had secured a pole from Masset but had sold it to a museum in Milwaukee after receiving no word from Cambridge. He did offer another pole, one from Tanu, for sale at acost of $650 (7 April 1924 Newcombe to Haddon)
This pole however became unavailable for sale because it was "in joint ownership with no present prospect of the rival owners agreeing as to the respective shares", (4 August 1924, Newcombe to Ridgeway.
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand
Context (Related Documents)
Geoffrey Bushnell added to the catalogue card that a lot of the data detailing the representations on the totem pole was " clearly wrong" and referred to Marius Barbeau's Totem Poles page 122 as evidence.
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand
Context (Acquisition Details)
Gillian Crowther (1996) u.p. (1926.225-226) noted 'Newcombe's son William wrote to Disney Professor Wililam Ridgewayafter his father's death on 19 Oct 1924, and noted 'the Haida promised to send a pole which may arrive at any time'. He undertook to complete the work his father has started.
(14 November 1924 W.Newcombe to W. Ridgeway)
...Three crates of totem poles weighing 4,600 lbs were eventually shipped aboard the SS Canadian Ranger on 7th December 1925 costing $133.25. Newcobe worte to Ridgeway detailing the cost of the pooles 'Haida totem pole $600, Kwakiutl house pole $125. (21 December 1925)...
By April 12 1926 the poles were in position in the museum, and Ridgeway commented he had received notes of provenance from Newcombe, the Haida pole being from Tanu, and the Kwakiutl from the Oowekeeno Rivers Inlet'. [These notes are now lost but a copy of Newcombe's photograph of the pole standing at Tanu, Haida Gwaii has survived- see P.47400.]
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand
Context (Acquisition Details)
The totem pole was originally from the village of Tanu on the eastern side of Moresby Island, Queen Charlotte Islands. The pole is very similar to an Eagle and beaver pole of Skedans illustrated and described in Marius Barbeau's Totem Poles: According to Crests and Topics pages 122-125 (Originally published 1950, reprinted 1990, Canadian Museum of Civilisation: Hull, Quebec). The pole is at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and is said to have belonged to the Eagle clan of Skedans or Kona, and possibly to the household of " Those-Born-at-Kona" .
Furthermore the pole is very similar to a house-post collected by Dr Charles Newcombe, also from Skedans, and displayed at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Barbeau suggeststhe two poles were from the hands of the same carver, as indeed the CUMAA pole may also originate, although there are a few differences. The differences are mainly in composition, the CUMAA pole does not have a frog and humanoid (?) on the chest of the second eagle, and stylistically the beaver's eyes and nose are distinct. The differences in composition are probably related to the different crests owned by different lineages.
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand
Context (Production / use)
Totem poles were raised at potlatches, chiefly the house- building potlatch or the mortuary potlatch. The poles are carved with the crests of the owner, and often detail a supernatural encounter or relationship which occurred to an ancestor or to the present owner. The poles sometimes are a narrative of a myth which is associated with the lineage. The poles were carved by the opposite clan of the potlatching chief, thereby underscoring the mutual dependency of the clans within the ceremonial system of rival claims to political position. Within the village the totem poles were clustered around the big houses of each lineage, representing continuous claims to status. The poles faced out to sea, and as one Haida artist commented (1989) represented " the symmetrical face of culture against the wild forests" .
In recent years the totem pole has become synonymous with the whole of Haida culture, rather than individual claims, and are important as physical reminders of the Haida Nation's claim over their land of Haida Gwaii. Totem poles have also been appropriated as cultural symbols by the Canadian nation state, making them ideal vehicles for rival identity claims. This is demonstrated by the increasing presence of Native people at pole raisings organised by the Federal Government, and their assertion of a unique Native identity beyond that of Canada. While totem poles raised within Native communities do represent individual and lineage claims to status, they have also become the cultural symbol of the continuing presence and strength of Native peoples on the Northwest Coast of Canada
Event Date 1996
Author: maa
Description (Physical description)
Large Haida totem pole carved with crest figures. The pole has an eagle with a damaged beak sitting on top of the potlatch rings of a skil property hat. The rings rest between the " ears" of an eagle with a projecting beak. On the eagle's chest is a smaller bird, possibly a young eagle with outstretched wings which overlap the bigger bird's wings. The curled feet of the bird rest on the head of a thunderbird which has its beak close against its body. In turn the thunderbird rests on a killerwhale with whom it is often associated in myths and on totem poles. The blowhole of the killerwhale is clearly visible together with its dorsal fins. Along the body of the killerwhale are more skil hat potlatch rings, below is a small humanoid face possibly that of the strongman who battled with killerwhales in myth. The set of hands round the rings are possibly those of the killerwhale indicating transformation, more likely though they belong to the strongman. The last figure is a beaver with a chewing stick and cross-hatched tail.
The pole is C-shaped in cross- section, having been hollowed-out to lessen the weight and enable it to be raised. The catalogue card records the figures as representing, from the bottom upwards, a beaver, " a supernatural being, the only woman's crest on the pole. Then comes a man used to fill space. Then a cormorant, also crest of man. Then an eagle showing that man belonged to that clan.
The three figures on the top of the main pole represent watchmen looking for enemy visitors. Bird on top , an owl."
Event Date 1/1996
Author: maa
Context (Other owners)
A photograph in MAA's collections P.47400. shows a view of the totem poles at Tanu village from the shoreline of Queen Charlotte Island. The pole now in the Museum (1926.225) is in the centre, directly in line with another.
The photograph is annotated by W.A. Newcombe that he brought the totem pole from Paul Jones, a direct descendent from the original owner.
Event Date 15/3/2011
Author: rachel hand
Description (Physical description)
Totem pole
Event Date 7/12/2016
Author: maa
Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2016.3443 | Remedial
Event Date 15/7/2016
Author: Kirstie Williams
Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2018.4212 | Assessment Only
Event Date 8/11/2018
Author: Kirstie Williams
Context (Amendments / updates)
Cultural group field previously incorrectly noted 'Tanu' as a language. group, but this has now been removed from the field.
Event Date 12/9/2018
Author: rachel hand
Context (Analysis)
An article in the Victoria Daily Colonist, Tuesday 5 May 1908. p. 11, quoting from the Dominon Express and later repeated in the Saffron Walden Weekly News - Friday 22 May 1908, p. 5 noted that Dr James Glaisher has bought a 69 ft pole for Trinity College. It was described as the 'tallest totem pole' and was bought from the dealer Henry Stadthagen at whose residence in Victoria it had stood for many years.
This story was repeated in the Cambridge Independent Press - Friday 22 May 1908, p. 4, and quote Glaisher who bought it 'when he was in Victoria last September at the Archaeological Museum, and it will be placed in the museum when it arrives there, probably next week. Dr. Glaisher while he was over there also bought two very much smaller totem poles, which have already arrived, and have been placed in the Museum'.
However, this pole seems not to have arrived at the Museum as research by Gillian Crowther in the museum archives (Crowther 1996) indicates the the Museum's totem pole (which is only c.45ft) was purchased in 1925 through collector Charles Newcombe and after his death, by his son William. The location of the 'tallest pole' referred to in the articles is unknown.
Event Date 2/9/2022
Author: rachel hand
Description (Physical description)
Totem pole carved with crest figures, previously belonging to the family of Paul Jones. At the top is an eagle sitting on top of the potlatch rings of a skil property hat, then a thunderbird on a killerwhale and a small humanoid face, possibly that of the strongman who battled with killerwhales in myth. The base figure is a beaver with a chewing stick.
Event Date 2/9/2022
Author: rachel hand
FM:82628
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