Art

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Lithograph by Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945), pencil signed 'Kollwitz' at lower R.
Description
Lithograph by Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945), pencil signed 'Kollwitz' at lower R. The title, Saatfrüchte Sollen Nicht Vermahlen Werden, is translated from German as "Seed Grain Shall Not Be Milled" or as "Grain for Sowing Shall Not Be Milled." It is a quotation from Goethe that Kollwitz originally used in a 1919 open letter protesting the continuation of World War I. This print, made in 1942, is a response to the Nazi edict that children were to be recruited for the German army.
The lithograph is Kollwitz's last print, one of three known copies of this edition. The lithographic stone was destroyed in the 1943 bombing of Berlin, which partially damaged Kollwitz's studio. Kollwitz died two years later, days before the end of the war she so strongly opposed.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1942
maker
Kollwitz, Kaethe
ID Number
GA.22069
catalog number
22069
accession number
265104
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
unknown
ID Number
GA.15159
catalog number
15159
accession number
94830
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1883
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14494
accession number
94830
catalog number
14494
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1857
maker
Scheffer, Ary
ID Number
GA.01036
catalog number
01036
accession number
20593

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