Explorer a Bit of a Mad Hatter

An associate professor at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology gave a tip of the cap to “abominable captain” Samuel Hill, who she said yesterday amassed a valuable collection of Native American basketry hats.

“He’s absolutely a sociopathic madman,” said the professor, Mary Malloy. “He’s a rapist and a murderer—and he’s a fascinating guy.”

Malloy told an audience of about 30 at a talk at the museum yesterday that the 19th-century Bostonian adventurer had preceded Lewis and Clark as the owner of several Native American basketry hats on exhibit at the Peabody.

The distinctive conical woven hats were brought back as souvenirs of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Columbia River.

Debate over their provenance is not old hat. Malloy said that she and her colleague, Anne-Marie Victor-Howe, have argued Hill’s role in the hats’ journey for years.

“I’m not sure about these hats at the Peabody,” said Victor-Howe, also a Peabody associate, who attended the lecture. Victor-Howe said it is possible that the hats may have reached Lewis and Clark through Native American traders or local craftsmen rather than Hill.

Hill probably acquired the hats while rescuing an American held captive by a Nootka tribe, known for their basketry hats, Malloy said.

The Howells director of the Peabody Museum, William L. Fash, said that objects in the Lewis and Clark exhibit had passed through Thomas Jefferson, Philadelphia’s Peale Museum, and the Boston Museum. The Peabody acquired the works after the Boston Museum was damaged by fire in 1899, he added.

Malloy said her interest in Hill, on whom she has written a forthcoming biography, stems from his globe-trotting: “He was the Forrest Gump of the 19th century.”

The Lewis and Clark exhibit at the Peabody, which runs through the end of December, celebrates the bicentennial of the duo’s expedition.