The politics of possession: Louis Shotridge and the Tlingit collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum ...
For twenty years, from 1912-1932, Louis Shotridge (Stoowukáa V), a Tlingit nobleman of the Chilkat Kaagwaantaan clan, was employed by the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia as field collector, curator, and exhibit preparator. In this position, Shotridge was given full responsibility f...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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University of British Columbia
2009
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0088254 https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0088254 |
| Summary: | For twenty years, from 1912-1932, Louis Shotridge (Stoowukáa V), a Tlingit nobleman of the Chilkat Kaagwaantaan clan, was employed by the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia as field collector, curator, and exhibit preparator. In this position, Shotridge was given full responsibility for the selection and acquisition of a collection of Northwest Coast objects. During this time, Shotridge grew to perceive his collections and their attendant documentation as a testament to Tlingit social structures and ancestral histories as well as the moral and ethical values of the Tlingit clans and the legitimating identities of clan leaders. While trained by Franz Boas in ethnographic method, Shotridge remained grounded in existing Tlingit social systems, combined with then-current Native American idealism and political objectives. Thus while he traveled through Tlingit territory collecting objects and recording their clan histories, he was also active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood. In his lifetime, ... |
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