Land Otter Pole

Land Otter Pole

1870
Artist
Dwight Wallace (Gid K’wáajuss)
Culture
Haida
Locale
Alaska Sukkwan (Saxq’wa.áan)
Country
United States
Object
House Frontal Pole, totem pole
Medium
Wood
Accession Number
1946.251
Credit Line
Gift of the University of Pennsylvania Museum

Dwight Wallace (Haida), Totem pole, 1870. Wood; 345 (h) x 38 (overall width) x 30 (d) in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1946.251

Dimensions
height: 345 in, 876.3000 cm; width: 32 in, 81.2800 cm; width: 38 in, 96.5200 cm; depth: 30 in, 76.2000 cm
Department
Native Arts
Collection
Indigenous Arts of North America
This object is currently on view
Known Provenance
Haida artist John Wallace sent this and one other nineteenth-century pole from Sukkwan, Alaska, to San Francisco for display in the 1939 exhibition, "Indian Court," which was organized by Denver Art Museum curator Frederic Douglas; René d’Harnoncourt, general manager of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and later director at the Museum of Modern Art; and German architect Henry Klumb for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. This large house frontal pole (right) was carved by John’s father, Dwight Wallace (Gid K’wáajuss). After the exposition, John Wallace sold both the historical poles to the Fairmount Park Association in Philadelphia, which turned them over to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. At the urging of Frederic Douglas, the Penn Museum gave them to Denver in 1946.