Art of the Americas

Ellen Neel

Ellen Neel (1916–1966) was a Kwakwakaʼwakw artist woodcarver and is the first woman known to have professionally carved totem poles. She came from Alert Bay, British Columbia, and her work is in public collections throughout the world. Scholar Priya Helweg writes, "Until Ellen Neel emerged as a professional carver in the late 1920s no women are named as carvers in the literature." Neel inspired subsequent First Nation women, such as Freda Diesing (Haida) and Doreen Jensen (Gitksan), to take up carving.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Chorrera culture
• ▸Book of Saint Albans
• ▸Classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.