Cleveland Museum of Art

Mask

Date

late 1800s–early 1900s

Medium

wood (alder), pigment

Culture

Native North America, Northwest Coast, Alaska, Tlingit

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In 1998, Robert Joseph, a Northwest Coast chief, recalled that when he donned ceremonial dance masks as a youth, "all the world is somewhere else . . . I am the mask . . . the bird . . . the animal . . . the spirit. I transcend into the being of the mask." Although this mask's identity is lost, it may represent a mythic ancestor of a Tlingit family and perhaps was worn during a winter ceremony.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.