Frontal Pole

Last weekend in Montreal it was cold and rainy so I stopped into the McCord Museum of history for a few minutes to sketch indoors. This frontal pole is beautifully integrated into an open stair well flanking the galleries.  It is about 10 m tall and is actually straight (my sketch book wouldn't lie flat for the photo).

This totem pole distinguished the front of a Haida long house in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia.  It was carved in the mid 1900s and seems never to have been painted.  The symbolism of the creatures represented status of the family. Bears seemed to play a big part in that story. It must have taken a lot of time to carve, which speaks to it's cultural importance and the standard of life living beside the sea, that could support such craftsmen.