Long lost Lewis & Clark artifact rediscovered

As we have noted before, keeping track of everything in a museum is no minor task. Another illustration, from today's NY Times:

When a breathless Castle McLaughlin called last week to say she had found "the necklace," Gaylord Torrence knew exactly what she was referring to: the so-called grizzly bear claw necklace, acquired by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their fabled exploration of the American West.

The item had been donated to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, where Ms. McLaughlin is the associate curator of Native American ethnography, but had been missing since the museum first cataloged it in 1899. . .

Of all the Indian objects Lewis and Clark collected during their trip, from 1804-6, only six others remain that can be traced definitively to the explorers: three raven belt ornaments, two basketry whalers' hats and one quilled otter bag. All six are in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology here.

It turns out the donors withheld the necklace in 1899; a family member finally quietly relinquished it in 1941. It was found by accident among the Peabody's stores of South Pacific items, misidentified as whalebone, of all things.

The Peabody's Lewis & Clark page is here; it includes some other grizzly claw ornaments, but no mention yet of the new find. It is illustrated here, however, as part of the Jan. 15 press release, which also notes that it will be placed on exhibit this spring.

Posted by David on January 21, 2004 8:01 PM