Selt or snake, Tsimshian of Gitwanga, British Columbia. Pastel by W. Langdon Kihn

This pastel was created by Wilfred (or William) Langdon Kihn (1898-1957) possibly in the 1920s.

Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) purchased many pastel drawings and watercolours for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in the early 20th century, as he and Kihn had an interest in documenting the lives and culture of Indigenous people of America and the First Nations. This is one of the 18 portraits that are still held in the Wellcome Collection today.

In addition to the Open to Collaborate Notice applied to our whole collection, we are applying an Attribution Incomplete notice to this item because the information we have about this portrait is incomplete and possibly inaccurate, particularly the name or identity of the sitter. Although the name is written on the back of the portrait, there is evidence in our documentation whether this reads “Selt” or “Lelt”.

This item will be loaned to the exhibition “Empowering Art: Indigenous Creativity and Activism from North America’s Northwest Coast” held at Sainsbury Centre, Norwich UK, 12 March-30 July 2023. Further information about the exhibition can be found here: https://www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk/whats-on/empowering-art-indigenous-creativity-and-activism-from-north-americas-northwest-coast/

Nicola Cook
n.cook@wellcome.org

• https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fj677cwa

Providers ID
fj677cwa

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None

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