<\/a>Chilkat robes, and at left, a pattern board used by the artist to weave the crest design. The robe at center, on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is the earliest and finest known Chilkat robe, according to Steve Henrikson, curator of collections at Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum. “The Spirit Wraps Around You: Northern Northwest Coast Native Textiles” is on display until Oct. 9. Photos like this and others documenting the exhibit are available in a new book celebrating the end of the exhibit. (Courtesy Photo\/ Steve Henrikson, Alaska State Library Archives and Museum)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
There are only about a dozen existing ancient Ravenstail robes, Henrikson said, and most of them are in museums on the east coast of North America and in Europe. Henrikson said the two robes on display at state museum are on loan from other museums, one from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the other from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We went to a lot of effort so people can see what a master quality robe is,” Henrikson said. “A lot of the old pieces on not on display, they’re too fragile, they can only be displayed for short periods of time.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
[On the Trails: Small things living on leaves<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The book — named after the exhibit —is co-authored by Henrikson, Lani Hotch, Marie Oldfield and Evelyn Vanderhoop, and contains background information on the weaving technique and dyes that go into making a robe.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The exhibit began May 9, and Henrickson said attendance was lower than hoped. Henrikson said he hoped Juneau residents would visit before Oct. 9, calling the exhibit a once-in-a-lifetime experience.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Chilkat robes and pattern board, used by the artist to weave the crest design. The robe at left depicts a bird. The robe at right, on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is the earliest and finest known Chilkat robe, according to Alaska State Library Archives and Museum curator of collections Steve Henrikson. “The Spirit Wraps Around You: Northern Northwest Coast Native Textiles” is on display until Oct. 9, and a book is being released in celebration of the exhibit. (Courtesy Photo\/ Alaska State Library Archives and Museum)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t “One of the main themes of the exhibit was to show how these objects are used over the years and by the people who ended collecting them,” Henrikson said. “A lot of people today would see this as any other art, but they’re sacred objects, they’re both art and sacred objects.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t There are Ravenstail robes form Southeast Alaska in collections at the British Museum in London, and the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg, Russia, Henrikson said. International law around sacred relics is complicated, Henrikson said, and when the museum borrowed the Royal Ontario Museum’s robe, the museum was required to have the U.S. State Department certify it wouldn’t be seized while in the U.S.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “That’s a sign of how treasured these things are and that came from here,” Henrikson said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Henrikson said the book will be available for order online and though the museum’s store had closed during the pandemic, staff were looking for a way to sell the books in the museum lobby.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “The Spirit Wraps Around You: Northern Northwest Coast Native Textiles” is available from the Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives website: foslam.org\/store<\/a>. $40 ($35 for Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum members).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>