Collecting Alaska: Sheldon Jackson, Louis Shotridge, and the Pursuit of Northwest Coast Artifacts, 1879-1932

Abstract

The Sheldon Jackson collection at the Princeton Art Museum consists of more than 250 Native American objects gathered in Alaska by the Presbyterian missionary and Princeton Theological Seminary alumnus Sheldon Jackson. This collection of art has been minimally researched and largely overlooked compared to Northwest Coast art collections held at other major museums and universities. Though not consistent with the aesthetic and cultural ideals of other collections, the Jackson collection offers a unique snapshot of Native craft production during the most turbulent period of Alaska history. My thesis will discuss Jackson and his unusual collecting practices as well as several key objects in the collection. The goal of the project is to offer a history and summation of the Jackson collection while putting the collection into a larger context of Native American art collecting and artistic change in the Pacific Northwest.