Behind the Scenes: Pacific Northwest Coast Peoples

by AMNH on

From the Collections posts

While many artifacts from the Museum's Pacific Northwest Coast collection are on display, more than 13,000 objects are kept in storage.

Join Curator of North American Ethnology Peter Whiteley as he leads a tour of the collections, which includes a giant Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw whale mask, a Chilkat blanket with three different interpretations of its abstract symbolism, and a Haida/Tsimshian raven rattle.

Visitors can also find a number of whale-related artifacts from the Anthropology collections on view in the Museum's special exhibition, Whales: Giants of the Deep, open through January 5, 2014.

Killer whale mask (in Whales exhibition)
A child might have worn this Kwakwaka’wakw mask in a dance performance, crouching beneath it and bobbing so that the whale seemed to float on the waves. The mask, from the Museum's collections, is now on exhibit in Whales: Giants of the Deep. 
© AMNH/D. Finnin
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The American Museum of Natural History gratefully acknowledges the Richard and Karen LeFrak Exhibition and Education Fund. 

Generous support for Whales: Giants of the Deep has been provided by the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund.