bottom: an eagle, an orca, a grizzly bear, and a
sculpin (fi g. 12). The grizzly bear holds a human
fi gure upside down by its feet. An interesting detail
on the pole can be spotted only from afar: A
small human face peers out of the orca’s blowhole,
perhaps the subject of the eagle’s hungry
gaze. The totem pole was donated to the museums
in 1900 by Captain Gustave Niebaum, a
co-founder of the Alaska Commercial Company
and the former owner of Inglenook Winery in
Rutherford, California. It was fi rst installed in
the North American Indian Hall of the original
Memorial Museum building, placed, remarkably,
above a doorway between galleries.
In front of the totem pole sits another large
sculpture from the Northwest Coast: a bear
effi gy carved in the late nineteenth century by
a Haida artist (fi g. 13). The impressive work,
once in the personal collection of Andy Warhol,
was donated to the museums in 2013 by
Thomas Weisel. The bear is rendered at about
half scale and was likely part of a tall wooden
post. It would have represented the crest of
the artist, his patron, or his community.
18 Both this sculpture and the totem
pole were expertly carved from the
trunks of cedar trees. Not just any
cedar could have been used for such
robust sculptures. A specialist must
have searched the forests for a tree
81
FIG. 10 (below): Gift basket.
Pomo artist, Russian River
Valley, Mendocino County,
California, United States.
C. 1890.
Willow, sedge root, bulrush, clam
shell, glass, acorn woodpecker
feathers. D: 27.3 cm.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
estate of Mrs. Thomas B. Bishop,
inv. 54.76.3.
Image courtesy of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco.
FIG. 11 (below):
Gift basket.
Pomo artist, Sonoma
County, California, United
States. C. 1895.
Sedge root; willow; cotton; clam
and abalone shell; glass; and acorn
woodpecker, quail, meadowlark, and
duck feathers. D: 15.2 cm.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
museum purchase, inv. 21478.
Image courtesy of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco.
WESTERN NORTH AMERICA
friends and family members at special occasions
like weddings. Most extant feather baskets, such
as those at the de Young, were likely made to be
sold.14 In the late nineteenth century, collectors
around the United States became enamored with
the art form, sparking a fad dubbed “canastromania”—
from canistrum, the Latin word for
basket—or “the basket craze.”15 One particularly
beautiful example on view is entirely covered
with brilliant, multi-chromatic plumes—green
duck feathers, yellow meadowlark feathers, and
red woodpecker feathers (fi g. 11). It is further
embellished with tassels of glass beads and abalone
shell pendants.16 It also has a handle made
of clamshell disks, allowing it to be suspended
and admired from all angles.17 This basket
entered the museums’ collection in 1902 and,
while noted to be acquired through purchase,
museum records state that it was accompanied
by a card reading, “Gift of C. P. Wilcomb,” the
Memorial Museum’s inaugural curator.
Another early—and substantially larger—acquisition
can also be seen in Native Artists
of Western North America. The
de Young’s monumental totem
pole, known to generations
of visitors, is on view for the
fi rst time since the opening
of the new museum
building. Made for sale
by a Tsimshian carver, the
pole depicts, from top to