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Bag-blown whistle (after 19th-century Haida people type)
Native American, Haida
1903
Object Place: Washington, DC, United States
Medium/Technique
Red cedar, animal bladder
Dimensions
Length 53.5 cm, width 22.9 cm, thickness 16.1 cm (Length 21 1/16 in., width 9 in., thickness 6 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection
Accession Number17.2210
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsMusical Instruments
ClassificationsMusical instruments – Aerophones
DescriptionFlattened spherical body constructed of two hollowed out halves of wood with duct in slender neck. Front half carved as face with large U-shaped hole at nose position for exit of air. Small roughly circular hole in forehead, possibly for use as fingerhole. Seams smeared with pitch. Bellows of animal bladder filled with straw and tied around neck with copper wire. Sounds pitch of B-flat with "fingerhole" closed and sharp e-flat with it open.
ProvenanceBy 1903, Francis W. Galpin (b. 1858 - d. 1945), Hatfield Regis, England [see note]; 1916, sold by Francis W. Galpin to William Lindsey (b. 1858 - d. 1922), Boston; 1916, gift of William Lindsey to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 5, 1916)
NOTE: F. W. Galpin, "The Whistles and Reed Instruments of the American Indians of the North-West Coast," Proceedings of the Musical Association, 29th sess. (1902-1903): pl. II, fig. 8a.
NOTE: F. W. Galpin, "The Whistles and Reed Instruments of the American Indians of the North-West Coast," Proceedings of the Musical Association, 29th sess. (1902-1903): pl. II, fig. 8a.