Tricks of the Trade: Northwest Coast Artifact Collecting, 1875–1925

Abstract

THE HEYDAY of anthropological collecting among the peoples of the Northwest Coast occurred during the half-century after • 875. During that time a staggering quantity of material, both secular and sacred from spindle whorls to soul-catchers left the hands of their native creators and users for the private and public collections of the European world. While earlier visitors and residents had casually collected the artistic and household manufactures of the indigenous culture, the beginning of commissioned, organized, and purposeful collecting can be precisely dated to the •875 action of Spencer Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, commissioning James G. Swan of Port Townsend to assemble a collection illustrative of the