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George Thornton Emmons

Also known as: George Thornton Emmons; primary name: Emmons, George Thornton
Details: individual; anthropologist; collector; American (USA); Male
Life dates: 1852-1945
Biography: Emmons was an anthropologist and collector of Native Alaskan art during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Baltimore in 1852, Emmons joined the US Navy in 1874 and was stationed in Alaska, where he developed an interest in the Tlingit culture. On his retirement from the Navy in 1899 he began working for the Federal Government on a boundary commission between Canada and Alaska and persuaded President Roosevelt to launch an investigation into the living conditions of Native Alaskans. A prolific collector, Emmons later sold several large collections of Northwest Coast ethnography to the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum and a number of smaller collections to other institutions. He published numerous articles and books on Northwest Coast anthropology and is still considered one of the most important sources on the culture of the Tlingit. He died in 1945. A number of pieces he collected reached the British Museum via the Beasley Collection, donated in 1944, and the Inverarity Collection, purchased in 1976.

12 related objects

adze

Museum number: Am1944,02.170 |
Ethnic group: x84743 Made by:Salishan |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:Fraser, River

adze

Museum number: Am1944,02.172 |
Ethnic group: x84743 Made by:Salishan |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:Lytton

adze

Museum number: Am1944,02.169 |
Ethnic group: x90573 Made by:Northwest Coast Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:North America

artefact

Museum number: Am1944,02.161 |
Ethnic group: Made by:Thompson River IndiansMade by:Plateau Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:LyttonFound/Acquired:Fraser, River

axe

Museum number: Am1944,02.162 |
Ethnic group: Made by:SalishanMade by:Plateau Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:LyttonFound/Acquired:Fraser, River

blade

Museum number: Am1944,02.160 |
Ethnic group: Made by:Thompson River IndiansMade by:Plateau Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:LyttonFound/Acquired:Fraser, River

mask

Museum number: Am1941,01.1 |
Ethnic group: Made by:Nuu-chah-nulthMade by:Northwest Coast Peoples |
Production date: 1840-1930 |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:Vancouver Island

spindle-whorl

Museum number: Am1944,02.156 |
Ethnic group: x83498 Made by:Cowichan |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:Duncan

tobacco-pipe

Museum number: Am1944,02.173 |
Ethnic group: x90573 Made by:Northwest Coast Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:North America

tobacco-pipe

Museum number: Am1944,02.177 |
Ethnic group: Made by:Northwest Coast PeoplesMade by:Coast Salish |
Production date: 1000-1850 |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:North America

tool/implement

Museum number: Am1944,02.167 |
Ethnic group: x90573 Made by:Northwest Coast Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:Fraser, River

tool/implement

Museum number: Am1944,02.165 |
Ethnic group: Made by:SalishanMade by:Plateau Peoples |
Findspot: Found/Acquired:LyttonFound/Acquired:Stein Creek