The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Face masks are brought out on ceremonial occasions in the display of inherited crests and privileges and as a means by which the presence of supernatural beings and their powers are made tangible. Eyeholes allow the wearer to see during the dance or dramatization of a story or event related to the creature depicted. The pierced openings along the top of this mask most likely were filled with feathers, echoing the painted U-shapes and hatch marks referencing plumage. - Anna Strankman

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art. Collected: Axel Rasmussen

FROM CARD: "A & B ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 4 (A ON LEFT, B ON RIGHT), PG. 316. LOANED RENWICK GAL. 11-7-73. LOAN RETURNED 8-24-76." Identified in Handbook caption as a dipper, "... a smaller bent-corner box with a long handle carved from the piece that forms the bottom." Painted designs in red and black, and borders and handle red. "The bottom of the ladle carries the eye-within-the-hand motif." Forms a set with water bucket E20568A.FROM CARD: 20568A (BOX), 20568B (DIPPER). FROM PAGE 77, BOXES AND BOWLS CATALOG; RENWICK GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN PRESS; 1974. OBJECTS ILLUS. ON SAME PAGE. 68. BOX AND DIPPER WOOD; PAINTED BLACK AND RED. HEIGHT (BOX): 10 1/4. LENGTH (DIPPER): 11. BELLA BELLA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. "WATER BUCKET AND LADLE." COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN. CATALOGED JANUARY 15, 1876. 20,568-A (BOX); 20,568-B (DIPPER)."Catalog card gives 5260 as accession number, but 4686 (also from Swan, in 1876) is more likely, as that accession contains objects from British Columbia.

Silkscreen print on white paper of many brightly coloured butterflies, twenty-four in all, in a variety of wing styles, shapes and bright colours. Short blue swirls divide the creatures from each other. A blue boarder, straight edged on the outside, swirling on the inside, surrounds the butterflies.

Silkscreen print of a whale in a Northwest Coast blue and black design on off-white paper. Dorsal fin at top, body forms circular curve, with its head at left and tail at right, almost touching. Print number 168/250, title and name written below image.

From card for E23523-46: "Dec 20, 1972, Bill Holm says that these are definitely Haida."Cultural ID for paddles E23523 - 23546 is somewhat in question. They were catalogued as Clallam, Bill Holm has identified them as Haida, but James Swan in correspondence in the accession file references 24 Bella Bella paddles.

OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE: SOCIAL AND MATERIAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NORTHWEST COAST. GLASS, AARON EXHIBITION CATALOG, 2011, Publisher: BARD GRADUATE CENTER AMERICA'S FASCINATING INDIAN HERITAGE. MAXWELL, JAMES, EDITOR, 1978, Publisher: READER'S DIGEST ART OF THE NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS. INVERARITY, ROBERT BRUCE, 1950, Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE HAIDA [OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS]. SWANTON, JOHN R. MEMOIRS, 8, 1905

The object is a house post made of cedar wood, dark and unpainted. Two figures include a large humanoid figure holding a small humanoid figure. The small figure is held in front of the larger figure's chest area. Each head has carved brows, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. There is also a small humanoid head with carved features between the knees of the larger figure. Frontal figures and head are carved in high relief. Back is roughly carved and relatively flat. House post is fragile. There are cracks throughout. There are exceptional losses of wood on and behind small head at bottom. There are miscellaneous holes, especially on the nose of the larger figure. Missing parts include a portion of the left hand and upper lip of the large figure as well as the left foot of the small figure. The back of larger figure's head is hollowed out. The post is very fibrous along the edge of the bottom. This house post is from a set of four (see 11.700.1-.2-.3).