Painted replica boards in red and black; reconstruction of images from a section of a Tsimshian house screen in the MOA collection. Image shows the pair of boards mounted together (DC5.1 and DC5.2).

• Narrative

  Painted by Lyle Wilson in 1989 (museum commission), based on the design found on a Tsimshian house board dated c. 1800-1840. This board replicates a small portion of a large painted house screen that, in the mid-1800s, fronted a lineage house at Lax Kw’alaams, a Tsimshian village on the northern BC coast. Decades after the house boards entered the museum collection, it was discovered that light raked across the surface of the boards, combined with high-contrast photography, revealed an elegant painting at least two hundred years old. This painting is one of several contemporary reproductions based on the old house screen boards. (See Nb7.342 for a complete reconstruction of the whole painted house front.)

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• Type of Item board
• Culture Tsimshian
• Material red cedar wood, paint
• Measurements height 366.0 cm, width 72.4 cm (part a) height 365.76 cm, width 101.6 cm (part b) height 366.0 cm, width 174.0 cm, depth 2.7 cm (overall)

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• Creator Lyle Wilson
• Previous Owner Museum of Anthropology
• Received from Museum of Anthropology

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• Made in Vancouver

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• Creation Date during 1989
• Ownership Date before 1989
• Acquisition Date during 1993

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• Condition good