Totem Pole (c. 1880): Art, History and Details

Totem Pole (c. 1880) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Native American villages of the Pacific Northwest were marked by great totem poles that proclaimed the rank and ancestry of their owners. This small model pole was once owned by a Tlingit storyteller, a member of the coho salmon clan, of the raven tribe. Because the pole has been stored indoors, its carving and bright, original colors are undamaged by the elements. Reportedly, this totem pole illustrates several stories. Kushda-Kaw, the land-otter, is the pole's lowermost figure; above him is his wife. The wife transforms herself into an owl (the third figure from the bottom) and flies into the trees to keep watch. Kushda-Kaw then lies in wait to frighten and harass unwary passers-by. Above the owl is a finback whale carrying a friend out to sea for fishing. Near the top of the pole is a whale with red lips who has swallowed his enemy, the raven. The tiny figure at the pole's summit is a spirit-woman, the raven's lover. She will cut the whale open to rescue him.

Object facts

• Title: Totem Pole
• Date: c. 1880
• Culture: Northwest Coast, Tlingit, 19th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: carved and painted wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 189.2 x 8.8 cm (74 1/2 x 3 7/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Native North America
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1989.89

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• E. H. T. “The Year in Review: Selections 1989.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (February 1990): 38–78.
• Fortenberry, Diane, ed. The Art Museum. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2017.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.