Sheldon Jackson Museum
To Show Artifact of Month
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s July artifact of the month is a Tlingit spruce root basket.
It was collected by Aaron Taylor Simson while in Sitka and was donated to the museum, along with more than 40 other artifacts, by Simson’s granddaughter, Grayce C. Alexander. The basket is an example of 19th century twined spruce root weaving and false embroidery.
The spruce root basket is cylindrical in shape and features two kinds of weaving and a colorful design band with dyed weft and false embroidery work. The base of the basket, done in “between weave” has a central spiral of purple dyed weft, a median band of red dyed weft and a band of black dyed weft at the turn. The dyed red, yellow, and black is done in the strawberry weave.
The design band’s false embroidery in natural and orange dyed grass combined with the dyed weft forms a row of “butterfly pattern (Emmons design 4) at the top and bottom and a variation of the “wave” pattern (Emmons design 37) in between. The rim of the basket is Emmons border 4 with a broken band of false embroidery just below the rim.
Originally from Rayne Township, Pennsylvania, Aaron Taylor Simson was born in 1848. He lived in Sitka from 1889 until 1894 when he and his wife Margaret moved due to the latter’s poor health. While in Alaska, Simson taught shoemaking at the Industrial Training School, the forerunner of Sheldon Jackson High School and later, College, and collected artifacts and photographs.
The artifact is one of many that make up the Aaron Taylor Simson/William Albert Simson Collection donated by Alexander. In addition to this basket and several other Tlingit and Unangan (Aleut) basketry pieces, Alexander gave the museum 43 others including several pairs of old-style Tlingit moccasins, two carved Tlingit grease dishes, a small Tlingit bentwood box with lid and corners painted red, Inupiaq children’s mukluks, and an Inupiaq bird snare.
Alexander also donated her grandfather’s photographs from his time in Alaska to the Alaska State Library Historical Collections. The collection of photographs are mostly of the Sitka mission school and students and are available for viewing on VILDA.
The Sheldon Jackson Museum has more than 250 Tlingit baskets in its collection. All may be seen at the museum during operating hours – every day between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., except some holidays. General admission is $7, $6 for seniors, and free for those 18 and under or members of either the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum or Friends of the Alaska State Museum.
Library Kids Get
‘Trip to Mars’
Children ages 7 to 9 can take ‘‘A Trip to Mars’’ at the Sitka Public Library 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6. In this adventure program participants will travel together to Mars and also work on a STEM activity to help Marquis the Martian get back into orbit.
The free program requires pre-registration. Space is limited.
BIHA Board Meets
Baranof Island Housing Authority Board of Commissioners will meet 5 p.m. July 31 at 245 Katlian Street.
Mountain Goat
Hunt to Close
Sitka District Ranger Perry Edwards, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, is closing South Baranof and Necker Bay zones to the harvest of mountain goats 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, July 31.
The closure will remain in effect through the rest of the 2019 season, which ends Dec. 31.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has issued a concurrent closure in the same zones.
Information on federal subsistence management special actions for the Tongass National Forest can be found at http://www.fs.usda.gov/news/tongass/news-events. For additional information, call Subsistence Biologist Justin Koller at 747-4297 or email him at justin.koller@usda.gov.
Information on the Federal Subsistence Management Program can be found at https://www.doi.gov/subsistence.
Film Society to
Screen ‘Yesterday’
The Sitka Film Society and Coliseum Theater will present the comedy “Yesterday,” 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Coliseum Theater.
In the story, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading. After a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed and he finds himself with a very complicated problem.
The film is rated PG-13. Tickets are $8 at Old Harbor Books and the door.
