{"id":26142,"date":"2015-12-28T09:01:40","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T17:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/baskets-bottle-cover-hat-sent-to-ketchikan\/"},"modified":"2015-12-28T09:01:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T17:01:40","slug":"baskets-bottle-cover-hat-sent-to-ketchikan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/baskets-bottle-cover-hat-sent-to-ketchikan\/","title":{"rendered":"Baskets, bottle cover, hat sent to Ketchikan"},"content":{"rendered":"

KETCHIKAN \u2014 <\/strong>When Peter Corey, former curator of the Alaska State Museum and the Sheldon Jackson Museum, died Sept. 20 in Sitka, he left behind a massive collection of Alaska Native art. Now, some of the pieces have found their way home to Ketchikan.<\/p>\n

The Tongass Historical Museum, in November, received six pieces from Corey\u2019s collection. The pieces \u2014 three baskets, a bottle cover, a painted hat and a cedar bark cover hat \u2014 were made in the 1970s by local Haida weaver Selina Peratrovich, with painting done by Ketchikan artist Nathan Jackson, according to museum director Lacey Simpson and Hayley Chambers, the museum\u2019s senior curator of collections.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a big, big collector,\u201d Chambers said about Corey. \u201cAnd his home \u2014 I can only kind of imagine what it looked like, I\u2019ve heard stories, I used to live in Sitka and I\u2019d walk by and kind of see it \u2014 but it was packed full of stuff. They have been going through and processing things in his house and sending items to the appropriate places that he designated, but it sounded like he had thousands of things. Baskets inside of baskets inside of baskets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corey \u2014 who also was involved with the installation of totem poles at the Totem Heritage Center \u2014 kept his collection in good shape, including maintaining diligent records on many items.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could use a little bit of cleaning, but otherwise they\u2019re in amazing condition,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cJust a little bit of dust on one of the hats, but it almost seemed like Peter got the items and then he put them on display or in a case of some kind, and he had them protected right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one of the baskets \u2014 made specially as a Christmas gift for Corey \u2014 Peratrovich weaved Corey\u2019s initials into the basket.<\/p>\n

Of the pieces the museum received, the cover hat is a bit less likely to be found in exhibits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere usually aren\u2019t any in museum collections,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cI\u2019ve been talking with some folks at the Anchorage museum to better understand their purpose, or why they might have gone out of use, and it sounds like … it might have been an issue of the painted one being a little more exciting for people that are buying them, and they don\u2019t know that the cover hat served a purpose \u2014 to protect the painted one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson added that the painted hat, if it were worn, would have been for ceremonial use.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t go for a hike with those,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The woven bottle cover also attracted the interest of the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cCovering bottles with basketry has been sort of a curio tradition for a really long time,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cOnce manufactured glass bottles started to make their way into the northwest coast, it was a great \u2014 kind of ready-made \u2014 form. They really appealed to visitors and tourists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a way for the Native traditions to adapt to modern uses,\u201d Chambers added.<\/p>\n

Holly Churchill, Peratrovich\u2019s granddaughter and a weaver herself, said in a phone interview that she\u2019s excited the pieces are coming back to Ketchikan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m equally excited that Peter Corey had them,\u201d Churchill said. \u201cHe was a longtime friend. My grandmother gave him a Haida name before the heritage center was created. I\u2019m excited that (the art is) coming to the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corey and Peratrovich also worked together to help teach weaving arts \u2014 which were in danger of being lost \u2014 to younger generations, according to Churchill.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family\u2019s just delighted that Peter had a love for the art,\u201d Churchill said. \u201cHe could see the importance of developing a program (to teach the arts), and I think that it\u2019s helped people build their self-esteem and be proud of their background.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there aren\u2019t yet plans to permanently display the artwork, Simpson and Chambers are looking at potential times and locations to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KETCHIKAN \u2014 When Peter Corey, former curator of the Alaska State Museum and the Sheldon Jackson Museum, died Sept. 20 in Sitka, he left behind a massive collection of Alaska Native art. Now, some of the pieces have found their way home to Ketchikan. The Tongass Historical Museum, in November, received six pieces from Corey\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":26143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-26142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26142"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}