This rug is an example of the beautiful geometric design, colors and skill of the Navajo weaver. Rugs and blankets like these have been prized by Europeans for many decades, especially in the late 1880′s. The market created by Europeans has helped sustain artisans as well as introduced new materials and techniques to their traditions. [...]
Above, is an image of a Clovis Projectile Point, a type of arrowhead found commonly in the United States Southwest. The name Clovis comes from Clovis, New Mexico, where these projectile points were first discovered buried amid extinct bison bones. The Clovis Projectile Point is characterized by it’s chipping. The maker would overlap flaking by [...]
This Seed Jar was crafted by the Hopi people from the region of Arizona. The jar is decorated with iconography of squash blossoms, dragonflies, and ears of corn. In 1932, Mary-Russel Ferrell Colton founded the Hopi Craftsman Exhibition. This project was designed to stimulate the creation of American Indian objects thus broadening the market for [...]
This early 19th century war shirt was made by the Mandan people of North Dakota. The shirt is made up of a variety of animals including deer, porcupine, horse and human. The bulk of the shirt comes from buckskin that is then decorated with leather fringe, beading, porcupine quills, horse and human hair. While this [...]
This Lenape Powder Charger is carved from an antler. The bottom is formed into a rattlesnake tail while the top depicts Misinghali’kun, the hunting god. The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania is a community of more than 300 people of Lenape descent who live mainly in southeastern Pennsylvania, primarily around Easton, Philadelphia and the Pocono Mountains. Unlike [...]
Erin Jensen, from our Community Education Department, sent me a few photos to post on the Loan Box webpage and I couldn’t resist giving these two young gentlemen a place of honor on the blog. Erin said their teacher, Ms. Kim, often brings her class to the Museum and is an enthusiastic supporter of the [...]
Central to the mission of the Penn Museum, is the preservation of cultural heritage as expressed in the Pennsylvania Declaration issued at the 1970 UNESCO Convention. During a Tlingit consultation visit in January 2008, Andrew Gamble, Jr. (Kaagwaantaan clan leader), Herman Davis (L’ooknax. ádi clan leader), and Tom Young (Kaagwaantaan Box House leader) donned Tlingit clan [...]
