Noch Slak, wife of Captain Jack of Kisbyyoks (Kispiox), British Columbia. Pastel by W. Langdon Kihn, 1924

21 Nov 2022

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Nicola Cook | Wellcome Collection

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This portrait was created by Wilfred (or William) Langdon Kihn (1898-1957) in 1924. It was purchased by Henry Wellcome in 1926 as a pair with the portrait described as “Captain Jack or Grizzly Bear Paw, medicine man of Kisbyyoks (Kispiox), British Columbia”.

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 who is also referred in our documentation as “Mrs. Captain Jack. Nohs-Lak, wife of Captain Jack, Kispayaks, B. C. Canada, Wolf phratry, costume of medicine woman” and “Lach-Geeboo crest wolf, medicine woman”.

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/psd6cn2v

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