Help Find The Missing House Models

Model Houses and Poles at the 1893 WCE Exhibition

View a panoramic photo of models at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (WCE) in Chicago.

Help Find the Missing Model Houses and Poles

Since the early 20th century, 13 houses and poles from the model village of Skidegate have gone missing. Help us find them.

In 1892, at least seventeen Haida carvers were commissioned to carve a model of their village of Skidegate, British Columbia, on Haida Gwaii for the World's Columbian Exposition (WCE) in Chicago, Illinois. The model of Skidegate village was unique, in that no other aboriginal village in Canada or the United States was systematically documented by its own nineteenth century residents.

The Bill Holm Center at the Burke Museum is working with the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kaay 'llnagaay and the Skidegate community to reassemble these models for a traveling exhibit featuring the original models and newly carved models by Haida artists.

This is a collaborative project between the Burke Museum's Bill Holm Center and the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kaay 'llnagaay. Research has been funded by the UW Royalty Research Fund, a Canadian Embassy Senior Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Exhibit Planning Grant, and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Washington. The Field Museum of Natural History has facilitated research on their collections and archival records.

  • The Burke Museum
  • The Bill Holm Center
  • The Haida Gwaii Museum
  • Logo: The Field Museum