University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Anthropology Senior Theses Department of Anthropology Spring 4-23-2021 Florence Shotridge: A Woman, Tlingit, and Museum Educator Guide Maria Murad
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Murad, Maria, "Florence Shotridge: A Woman, Tlingit, and Museum Educator Guide" (2021). Anthropology Senior Theses. Paper 207. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses/207 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Florence Shotridge: A Woman, Tlingit, and Museum Educator Guide Abstract This project aims to tell the life history of a Tlingit woman named Florence Shotridge (1882-1917) through both a written essay and a short film. Florence’s husband, Louis Shotridge, is a well-known Tlingit ethnographer and collector, but much of his work in his early career was done in collaboration with Florence - yet she is not often mentioned in these early years of his work. Her life story requires a deep understanding of the social organization, geography, names and naming, and regalia in Tlingit culture and society. These cultural values played a large role in the work she produced as a Chilkat weaver, volunteer Educator Guide at the Penn Museum, and anthropologist on the Shotridge Expedition. Her work has been neglected in comparison to her husband’s contributions, but much of his start in the field is thanks ot Florence’s English speaking and Chilkat weaving skills. In addition to this paper that lays out the social contexts of her time, I have created an accompanying short film which aims ot breathe new life into Florence’s story and to be shared widely in order to ensure her life and legacy extend beyond the periphery of the Penn Museum and the Tlingit community.