Raven Mask
This Raven Mask came to the Nelson-Atkins in 1931 as part of an agreement with the Heye Foundation’s Museum of the American Indian in New York (now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.). In exchange for the Nelson-Atkins’s financial support on an unsuccessful expedition to the Orinoco River in Venezuela, the Heye Foundation donated more than three hundred objects from its collection, including this mask. The Heye had purchased it from Dr. Charles F. Newcombe, an anthropologist who visited the Kwakiutl people in the late 1890s.
Acquired by Charles F. Newcombe (1851-1924), by 1900;
Purchased from Newcombe by the Free Museum of Art and Science (later the Penn Museum), Philadelphia, PA, no. 37891, 1900-1908 [1];
Acquired from the Free Museum of Art, by exchange, by George Gustav Heye (1874-1957), New York, no. 19276, 1908-1931 [2];
Transferred from the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation, New York, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931 [3].
NOTES:
[1] Penn Museum records, according to email correspondence between the Penn Museum and MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, March 10, 2021, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, object documentation, accession lot 1906.008. In 1916, George Heye founded the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation, which opened to the public in New York City in 1922. In 1989, the remaining collection was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and became part of the National Museum of the American Indian.
[3] In 1931 the Nelson-Atkins co-sponsored two archaeological expeditions with the Heye Foundation: one to Colombia that was directed by Gregory Mason, and a second to the Orinoco River region of Venezuela, directed by Herbert S. Dickey. The partage agreement between the two institutions specified that if the value of the found objects did not match the dollar amount invested by the Nelson-Atkins, the Heye Foundation would transfer objects from its own collection to the Nelson-Atkins to make up the difference, while also giving the Nelson-Atkins an opportunity to purchase additional objects from the Heye Foundation. When the archaeological excavations failed to meet expectations, this was one of a group of objects that were transferred/purchased from the Heye Foundation’s collection to the Nelson-Atkins.
