Bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most prized products from a successful hunt was the fat from whales, seals, and fish, especially eulachon (candlefish). Used to give flavor and additional calories to foods, these oils remain an essential part of the Tsimshian culinary repertoire. This bowl once held eulachon oil and features the projecting head of a bird, possibly a raven. Such a finely detailed dish would have been reserved for important guests during a potlatch ceremony or other feasting occasion. The carver has imbued his quotidian creation with an otherworldly essence: a face, whose gaping mouth forms the rim, is apparent when viewed from above.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art