The carved portrait heads that once adorned the Burden Lake totem pole are rare and evocative survivals of turn-of-the-century American folk art and leisure culture. Originally mounted to a towering totem erected at Camp Gleason, a private gentlemen’s retreat on Burden Lake in Rensselaer County, New York, the heads were conceived as playful yet individualized likenesses commemorating members of that social circle. After buying the camp from its original owner John Gleason, inventor and entrepreneur Matthew (Matthias) Larkin acquired a totem pole from the West Coast and had it shipped east, where it was extensively modified in Albany, New York, with the addition of the carved heads and a dramatic skeleton finial.

Period photographs document at least five heads originally attached to the pole. Three are confidently identified as depicting Larkin, Herbert Mills of the Mills Novelty Company, and John Gleason; two additional heads remain unidentified, with contemporary accounts suggesting that one may represent baseball legend Christy Mathewson. Relocated in 1911 to Larkin’s Camp Totem and later preserved following the pole’s collapse in 1958 during a strong thunderstorm, the heads stand today as striking examples of American folk art.

For further discussion on the totem pole, visit https://sandlakehistory.org/totem-pole/index.html.