On the beach — Nakoaktok. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
Full-length standing portrait of a woman with her clam basket, at the water's edge: 'This high-born clam-digger is wearing aboriginal costume consisting of a cedar-bark blanket, used as a robe, a cedar-bark rain-cape, a spruce-root "chief's hat", and woollen ankle-bands.'
Koskimo house-post. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
Close view of carved and painted post figure: 'The huge, grotesquely carved interior supporting columns are the most striking feature of Kwakiutl houses. The figures perpetuate the memory of incidents in the legendary history of the family, frequently representing a tutelary spirit of the founde...
Kwakiutl house-frame. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
A dramatic composition from beneath the timber frames, looking towards the water: 'The two long beams in the middle are twin ridge-timbers, which are supported in the rear, as in the front, by a transverse beam resting on two uprights. At the extreme right and left are the eaves-timbers. The lon...
Wedding party — Qagyuhl. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
View at the water's edge, with the wedding party in the two canoes drawn up at the shore: 'After the wedding ceremony at the bride's village the party returns to the husband's home. The newly married pair stand on a painted "bride's seat" in the stern of the canoe, and the bridegroom's sister or...
Yakotlus — Quatsino, profile. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
Head-and-shoulders right profile portrait of an elderly man: 'In physique and intelligence the Quatsino seem inferior to the other Kwakiutl tribes. This plate illustrates the artificial deformation of the head, which formerly was quite general on the North Pacific coast. The process is described...