This file contains a letter and photographs sent by Adelaide de Menil to Wilson Duff. de Menil photographs depict totem poles in multiple unoccupied Tlingit villages, with location notes on the verso of each. As indicated in her letter, she was sharing these samples with Duff in hopes of photographing totem poles kept in the storehouse of Totem Park at UBC. de Menil intended to compile and annotate the photographs of these and additional poles in British Columbia to produce a book for publication. This research appears to be what ultimately resulted in the 1971 book "Out of the Silence" by de Menil and Bill Reid.

This file includes a letter from Don E. Dumond, with the Dept. of Anthropology at the University of Washington. Along with the letter, Dumond includes an article he wrote titled "A Note on the Prehistory of Southwestern Alaska".

File mainly contains historical images of Haida and Tlingit villages and totem poles located on the Northwest Coast of British Columbia and Alaska. There are also images of Haida and Tlingit peoples dressed in regalia. Other photos include images of Haida and Tlingit artifacts, such as bentwood boxes and carvings, housed in various museums around the world. There are also images of a modern day ceremony in front of some totem poles and long houses. The textual records include photocopies of images of totem poles and Haida and Tlingit villages.