In 1880, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) joined the international scramble to “salvage” Northwest Coast material culture. Museum trustee Heber Bishop (1840-1902) had made his fortune as a sugar planter and refiner in Cuba before embarking on a second lucrative career in railways, iron, and gas. His business took him to British Columbia in 1880, where he hired Dr. Israel Wood Powell  (1836-1915) to acquire a complete collection of regional materials for the museum on Bishop’s behalf.

The Canadian federal government had appointed Powell to the role of Senior Superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1872, with a particular responsibility for peoples of the west coast. Powell held public office in Victoria, but given his profession as a medical doctor with limited experience and minimal knowledge of First Nations cultures, the choice was odd. The position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs was fraught, and while Powell advocated for greater acreage allotment for Indigenous reservations, he was first and foremost an agent of colonial power serving settler interests. As the population ratio of Native to non-Native peoples in BC decreased—from about half in the 1880s to less than one third by 1891—so did incentives for conciliation between these groups. Indeed, it was during Powell’s tenure and with his support that the 1884 federal law prohibiting the potlatch went into effect.

By the time AMNH contracted Powell’s services in 1880, he already had considerable experience collecting for the Geological Survey of Canada (now the Canadian Museum of History) and for the Smithsonian’s display at the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia. Accession files at AMNH indicate that Powell made three shipments from Victoria: the first in late 1881; the second probably in October of 1882; and the last in January of 1885. He likely amassed the bulk of the collection during an official tour of several nations—including the Tsimshian, Haida, Heiltsuk, and Nuxalk—aboard the HMS Rocket over the summer of 1881. Unfortunately, Powell’s records are sparse: he did not document locations, dates, or any ethnographic information pertaining to the objects he collected. Only one invoice exists, for the sum of $2,174.09, and whether this represents all 791 objects Powell amassed is unclear. In order to make sense of the collection, the museum hired Franz Boas in 1887, and Bishop paid him $300 for his cataloging services. Boas would later draw on his extensive knowledge of the Bishop-Powell collection in his 1897 book. Despite the lack of detailed documentation, the age and breadth of the Powell collection make it exceptional to this day—highlights include a set of four crest-bearing Tsimshian house posts and the iconic Haida/Heiltsuk dugout canoe.

Although Powell was satisfied with the result of his labors, he felt pangs of regret at sending the treasures abroad. He wrote to AMNH Curator of Ethnology, Dr. Albert Bickmore, in 1882: “I should not like to undertake another work of this kind, and when looking at them this morning, I really felt guilty of a want of patriotism in sending the collection out of the country.” For his part, Bishop would go on to proudly finance further AMNH expeditions to the Northwest Coast and beyond.

By Sophie Swanson