This elaborately decorated cradleboard has dentalium shells, glass and shell beads, and brass thimbles hanging from it. These are decorative but would also have amused the baby. Towards the back there are hanging beaded rings, resembling dreamcatchers, which would have protected the baby from bad dreams. The baby’s head in this baby carrier is made of kid gloves. It is not known when the head was added, but it is likely that it was put there by the collector’s wife, for her children to play with.

This cradleboard was collected in 1841 or 1842 by Edward Hopkins, secretary to the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Its beadwork and decoration reflect several tribal styles, and suggest that it came from one of the fur trade communities in western North America, perhaps Fort Vancouver where Hopkins' party stopped.

View database record 1893.67.192