Raven Rattle
Arts of the Americas
Animals indigenous to the Northwest Coast region play prominent roles in this group of objects. Rattles were part of chiefs’ ceremonial dance regalia; the Tsimshian example depicts a shaman touching tongues with a frog as he rides on the back of a raven with another frog in its mouth. The clapper by the Haida artist Charles Edenshaw takes the form of a halibut with the face of the fish’s spirit represented on the tail. The Haida frontlet, which would have been attached to a headdress, represents a raven emerging from the mouth of a whale. The Tlingit soul catcher, of a type used by shamans to capture and protect people’s souls during healing ceremonies, depicts a whale with a fin rising from the center of its back.
CULTURE
Tsimshian
MEDIUM
Wood, pigment, rattles, cotton twine
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
- Place made: British Columbia, Canada
- Place collected: Bella Bella, British Columbia, Canada
DATES
19th century
DIMENSIONS
5 1/2 x 14 x 4 in. (14.0 x 35.6 x 10.2 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER
05.588.7292
CREDIT LINE
Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Raven rattle depicting a shaman on the back of a raven. The bird has a frog in its mouth, another frog touches tongues with the shaman, and frogs are on his feet. The bottom of the raven figure is carved.
Condition: excellent.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Tsimshian. Raven Rattle, 19th century. Wood, pigment, rattles, cotton twine, 5 1/2 x 14 x 4 in. (14.0 x 35.6 x 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7292. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7292_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 05.588.7292_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
![Kachina Doll (Pakwen [Clown])](https://d1lfxha3ugu3d4.cloudfront.net/images/opencollection/objects/size2_sq/CUR.03.325.4606_front.jpg)
