The Sheldon Jackson Museum November artifact of the month is a Tlingit wall pocket (SJ-I-A-685). We don't have much information about the wall pocket, but records state that Linus Carlsson collected it between 1920 and 1929. The pocket features glass seed bead designs and motifs typical of that time period. Some details suggest it may have been made for the tourist market. The construction also reflects some interesting trends in indigenous-made souvenirs from the era.
The wall pocket has a shield-like shape with blue and red felt in the upper third. Below that, mottled seal skin panels flank either side of the skin of a deer leg with dewclaws attached. Glass seed beads are embroidered in the form of a flying eagle with a red heart at its center and two small oval shapes in brown beads on each wing. A foliate-like design or geesh design in red and green repeats on both sides of the eagle. The opening of the pocket starts just below the eagle and foliate design with a trim of black, now disintegrating fabric. A strip of red felt is placed below that, with alternating pink and blue seed beads embroidered to spell out the word "Angoon" in capital letters. Small yellow seed beads are sewn along the exterior edge and the top of the pocket's opening.
According to Megan Smetzer’s book, Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience, the land-based fur trade had waned and the value of fur and hides had risen by the late 19th century in Alaska. As a result, cloth became more highly valued within Tlingit society and for ceremonial use. Tlingit women were left with stockpiles of hides, remnants of a traditional subsistence lifestyle. They began making curios from hide and fur, seeking to appeal to tourists’ romanticized ideals of a wild and abundant Alaska. The shift away from commercial cloth and incorporation of designs like the American bald eagle on this pocket reflects a changing Alaskan economy, Victorian-era tourists’ desires, and Tlingit women’s entrepreneurial and pragmatic adaptation to both.
The Sheldon Jackson Museum cares for sixteen wall pockets, ten of which are Tlingit. You can see the November artifact of the month and other examples of snow-related artifacts at the museum. Except for holidays, the Sheldon Jackson Museum is currently open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 am-4 pm. General admission is $8, $7 for seniors and free for ages 18 and under and for active military and their families.
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