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Abraham Lincoln Totem Pol
- Creator:
- Mike Roberts
- Location:
- California, Berkeley
- Origin Date:
- 1975
- Materials:
- paper
- Measurements:
- overall: 6 in x 4 in
- Item ID:
- 71.2009.083.3050
- Holding Institution:
- Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum
- Available for Viewing:
- No
- Category:
- Cartoons, Broadsides & Ephemera
Description
This color postcard features the Abraham Lincoln Totem Pole, done by Tlingit carvers in 1939-1941, located in Saxman Park, Ketchikan, Alaska. This totem is a reproduction of the original Lincoln totem. The original was in poor condition and was sent to the Territorial Museum in Juneau in 1939. The story of the Lincoln totem begins in 1868, when the United States government built a customs house and fort on Tongass Island and left the U.S. revenue cutter Lincoln to patrol the area. After American soldiers at the fort and aboard the Lincoln provided protection to the Tongass group against its rival, the Kagwantans, the Tongass group commissioned the Lincoln pole to commemorate the event. The postcard reverse is divided. The caption is printed in the lower left corner. A brief handwritten note in blue ink from Joyce and Aggie Pate to Gerald McMurtry of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is also on the left side. The Juneau, Alaska, postmark is dated July 28, 1975. Part of the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum