Burke Museum

A student went to Seattle over Spring Break and visited the Burke Museum. Happily she brought me 2 lovely postcards to add to my NW Coast collection!! The Burke is well known and highly regarded (but my student says they are building a larger complex): http://www.burkemuseum.org/

This card features a Killer Whale crest headdress of the Tlingit people made in the mid 1800s. It was collected in 1905 from Prince of Wales Island and is made from red cedar, sea lion teeth and features mirrors.

Another card shows a wooden rattle carved in the form of a grouse by a Makah artist also in the 1800s and acquired by the museum in 1915. The Smithsonian also has a number of rattles made using this bird form although I am unsure of its cultural meaning.