Tag Archives: Northwest Coast

Chilliwack Museum Accession number 1957.019.084

The Chilliwack Museum (map) has a large, searchable collection of photos online, which they ruin with a huge watermark in the middle.  Seriously, guys, these are ancient artifacts that you are lucky to be curating.  And, your pictures aren’t very good in the first place – many out of focus, or with extensive shadowing.  In any case, for archaeologists, you can click for artifacts made of, or records containing the word,   “stone” (they have a huge number of celts, mauls and abrader stones, as you might imagine since the Fraser Valley is known for these, perhaps because of extensive plowing of former woodlands).  Oddly they don’t seem to have any aboriginal artifacts made of bone, shell, or antler.  Search term “Sto:lo” returns one empty field.  Further they make it almost impossible to link to a specific record or picture. I am putting in a picture I downloaded from their site of an unusual artifact – a ground stone point with a very unusual morphology and material.  They list it made out of serpentine, but from what I can tell, it shows signs of being readily worked, and so may be a softer verson of serpentine, perhaps soapstone.  The shape is like a bronze age arrowhead or something — highly unusual.   Too bad there isn’t a better picture available.  So, all in all, Chilliwack Museum people: you put a lot of time and energy into a resource that is not particularly useful nor does it readily promote the heritage of the Fraser Valley.  I suggest you rework your URL system, remove the watermarks, and update your keywords by adding Sto:lo to appropriate records.  Double-check your raw material “horn” as well.  You have a fantastic collection, share it!