Wood, stomachs, bladders, and skins were used by Northwest Coast fishermen and sea hunters to make floats of many sizes. The largest and most impressive were whaling floats made of the skins or hair, of harbor seals. Painted designs on most whaling floats are similar to these. Concentric circles in various combinations of red and black, with simple geometric elaboration, make up the patterns. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The ethnological collections of the Washington State Museum (now the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum) were greatly enlarged by the acquisition of the Emmons collection of Tlingit material at the close of the Alaskaka-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. At that time, curator Frank Hall began to catalog the collection. Perhaps arbitrarily, since Hall had to start somewhere, a pair of Haida dance shirts collected by James Swan for the Washington exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago were given the catalog numbers 1 and 2. The design on the front of the tunic represents a sea lion, while the one on the back is a killer whale, or orca. Killer whale and sea lions are crests of the Haida Raven phratry. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The trade cloth is red and blue.

The cotton cloth is green. The ink is black and red.

The leather is tan. The felt is yellow. The fur is brown. The bead is blue, white, yellow, pink, silver, red, green, and light blue. The cloth is red and pink.

The cotton cloth is blue. The ink is blue, tan, black, white, and gray.

The cotton cloth is white. The ink is brown, tan, black, and yellow.