Totem Pole (British Museum)

The Kayung totem pole in the Great Court of the British Museum

Being installed in the Great Court
Material	Cedar
Height	12 metres (39 ft)
Created	c. 1850 in Canada
Present location	The Great Court of the British Museum
Identification	Am1903,0314.1

The Kayung totem pole is a 12-metre (39 ft) totem pole made by the Haida people. Carved and originally located in the village of Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbia, Canada, it dates from around 1850. In 1903 it was sold by Charles Frederick Newcombe to the British Museum, where since 2007 it has been a prominent exhibit in the Great Court.

The totem pole was obtained by the Museum in 1903, when the pole was about fifty years old. The craft of making totem poles, built as heraldic signs but misinterpreted by missionaries, was at that point in decline. It was purchased from Charles Frederick Newcombe, who sold a large number of totem poles to museums in Europe. The provenance of the pole was certain as the Museum already had a model of it, provided by J. H. Keen, along with two photographs that showed the pole in its original location.

Before being sold to collectors, the pole was located in a village called Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbia's Haida Gwaii archipelago, then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Kayung had been an important village for the Haida before European contact. After the population was decimated by successive smallpox epidemics in the late 1800s, Henry Wiah, the town chief, encouraged the remaining population to move to nearby Masset. The village was in the process of being abandoned in 1884, when Richard Maynard photographed it, identifying fourteen houses.

Due to its size, the 12-metre (39 ft) pole spent most of its time at the British Museum confined to a stairwell, as this was the only space of sufficient height available. After the roof of the Great Court was constructed, it became possible to install the pole there in 2007.

Weathering on the pole means that there is no remaining paint on the surface, but the explanation of what the carvings represented is available. Chief Wiah told the stories to Charles F. Newcombe, and they were recorded in the 1903 description. The stories themselves are corroborated by another of the Museum's totem poles, which was obtained with a model of a First Nations longhouse provided by Keen. The second pole was almost identical to the first one. The figure at the top represents Yetl, and the design also incorporates Haida crests.