M0012640: Tsimshian frontlet / M0012641: Haida or Tlingit ceremonial rattle

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Photograph of a carved wood frontlet for a ceremonial headpiece made by the Tsimshian in British Columbia. The carving shows a representation of a beaver gnawing a stick, painted red and inlaid with abalone shell. This item was accessioned by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum but is now held by the British Museum (Am1981,12.18). Below this in the same image is a ceremonial rattle from Queen Charlotte Island, British Columbia, possibly made by the Haida or Tlingit. The carving combines the figures of a man with his tongue held in the beak of a smaller bird formed by the tail of a raven. This item was accessioned by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (R10083/1936) but is not held by Wellcome Collection. The photograph was included in the catalogue for a Wellcome Historical Medical Museum Exhibition illustrating the medicine of the aboriginal peoples in the British Commonwealth, London, 1952.

M0012640: Tsimshian frontlet / M0012641: Haida or Tlingit ceremonial rattle

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