A GROUP OF INUPIAT WHALEBONE MAKS ca 1950. Ex. Eric Harvie Riveredge Foundation.
Field collected in 1965 in the ancient whaling village of Tigara, now called Point Hope Alaska.
They were acquired shortly after by ERIC HARVIE. Eric Harvie gave the entire Glenbow Fundation Collection to the province of Alberta in 1966, which became The Glenbow Museum in Calgary
Eric Harvie founded another institution called Riveredge Foundation in 1967 and began collecting once again. Included in his Riveredge collection were these Three Fine Masks carved in archaic style from a very old whalebone ribs used for building their Early Sod Iglus in Tigara.
Each mask has a museum number written in white paint on the back. In front of each number is the letter ‘R’ representing ‘Riveredge’. Eventually Eric Harvie donated his entire Riveredge Fundation collection to the Glenbow Museum.
The Eric Harvie Whalebone Masks now became property of the Glenbow Museum.
However, after Eric Harvie’s death in 1975, under new management, the Glenbow Museum held two auctions and let go a group of very fine items. The auction of the year 2000 included these three beautiful Inupiat Masks.
ERIC LAFFERTY HARVIE– Alberta’s noble man and Canada’s most generous philanthropist 2 April 1892- 11 January 1975. A brilliant lawyer and a very successful oilman. Holding mineral rights to large tracts of land around Edmonton. He made a huge fortune after oil discoveries in Leduc in 1947 and Redwater in 1948. Born in 1892 in Orilla, Ontario.
On 8 October 1916 in WWI, Harvie was badly injured in a trench attack which lasted most of the day. He had to hide in shell craters and was finally rescued in the evening.
In 1918 while on leave, he met Dorothy Jean Southam. After their marriage in 1919 they moved to Calgary. The rest is Alberta history.
Following the sale of western lease holds in 1955, Eric Harvie dedicated increasing time to his collecting hobby and philanthropy through his Devonian Group of Charitable Foundations which also included the Riveredge Foundation. Towards the end of his life, Eric Harvie gave back most of his fortune.
In 1962 Eric Harvie was made an Honorary Chief of the Blackfoot Nation and in 1967 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
