James Swan· cha-tic of the Northwest Coast

Miles· George A.

"In November 1852 James Swan moved to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington Territory. Fascinated by the Indian communities he encountered, Swan spent the remainder of his life studying their art, material culture, and history. The author of several books, he became the Smithsonian Institution's principal agent in the Northwest, collecting natural history and ethnographic objects from Gray's Harbor through the Alaskan panhandle. He lived among the Makah Indians of Neah Bay where he taught school and was among the first Americans to visit the Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands." "Known as an avid correspondent and diarist (he kept a daily journal for the last 41 years of his life), Swan was also a talented draftsman who sketched many of the people he met, the places he visited, and the events he witnessed. He also commissioned and collected work by Indian artists he...

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