Cultures & Communities

Furniture, cooking wares, clothing, works of art, and many other kinds of artifacts are part of what knit people into communities and cultures. The Museum’s collections feature artifacts from European Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, African Americans, Gypsies, Jews, and Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The objects range from ceramic face jugs made by enslaved African Americans in South Carolina to graduation robes and wedding gowns. The holdings also include artifacts associated with education, such as teaching equipment, textbooks, and two complete schoolrooms. Uniforms, insignia, and other objects represent a wide variety of civic and voluntary organizations, including youth and fraternal groups, scouting, police forces, and firefighters.

This large Chinese export bowl features a panoramic view of the hongs—the office, warehouse, and living spaces for foreign merchants in Canton, China, in the late 18th century.
Description
This large Chinese export bowl features a panoramic view of the hongs—the office, warehouse, and living spaces for foreign merchants in Canton, China, in the late 18th century. There European and American merchants traded with their Chinese counterparts for highly desirable teas, silks, and porcelains. The presence of the Stars and Stripes outside the American factory suggests that the bowl was made in or after 1785, following America’s entry into direct trade with China in 1784. (Note that the Chinese artist painted the stars in blue on the white porcelain background, probably for technical reasons rather than in error.) The flags of France, Britain, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden also can be seen outside their respective factories. Punch bowls depicting the hongs were exotic souvenir items, brought back to America by the East Coast entrepreneurs who sailed to China as independent merchants, thereby breaking dependence on the British East India Company to provide the former colonies with tea and other luxury goods.
The Chinese produced bowls like this in the town of Jingdezhen in southern China specifically for the western market. Undecorated, they were carried five hundred miles overland to Canton, where enamel decoration was applied in workshops close to the hongs. On completion a large bowl like this was packed in a crate with several others and dispatched through the hongs. All goods for export were ferried in the small boats seen painted on this bowl, to the deep-water port of Whampoa farther down the Pearl River.
A large bowl of this kind would have been used to serve punch. The word “punch” is thought to derive from the Hindu word “pànch,” meaning “five”—for the number of ingredients used to make the brew.The custom of drinking punch reached the West through the East India trade. Punch bowls became indispensable at convivial male gatherings in the clubs, societies, and private homes of the port cities on the American East Coast in the late 18th century.
The Smithsonian Institution acquired this bowl in 1961 from dealer Herbert Schiffer. Before coming to the Smithsonian, the bowl had been broken and repaired, and then it was heavily damaged in a 1958 fire. After the fire Helen Kean, a specialist in the restoration of ceramics, reconstructed the bowl from shattered fragments. Once it came to the Smithsonian, conservators performed a radical restoration, referring to very similar hong bowls held in collections at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware, and the Reeves Collection at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Date made
18th century
date made
1785-1795
ID Number
CE.61.8
catalog number
61.8
accession number
234613
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1804-08-02
ID Number
DL.006873.140
catalog number
6873.140
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1809-09-20
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Esther
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.005
accession number
28810
catalog number
6873.005
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1802-05-10
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.128
catalog number
6873.128
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1807-03-12
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
ID Number
DL.006873.169
catalog number
6873.169
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1807-04-04
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.116
catalog number
6873.116
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1802-01-24
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.123
catalog number
6873.123
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1808-04-01
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
Copp, Esther
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.172
catalog number
6873.172
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800 - 1802
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.101
catalog number
6873.101
accession number
28810
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
18th century
ID Number
CL.65.1158
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.1158
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1801-02-26
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.112
catalog number
6873.112
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1808-03-18
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.182
catalog number
6873.182
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1806-11-13
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.165
catalog number
6873.165
accession number
28810
Letter written by Betsy M. Luthorn at Groton to Miss Mary Copp at Stonington, July 7, 1802.You find my Dear Mary an oppertunity of wrighting you is sufficient to bring me to my wrighting table when my happiness is only surpassed by reflecting on your most indearing convasation.
Description
Letter written by Betsy M. Luthorn at Groton to Miss Mary Copp at Stonington, July 7, 1802.
You find my Dear Mary an oppertunity of wrighting you is sufficient to bring me to my wrighting table when my happiness is only surpassed by reflecting on your most indearing convasation. although it is but a few days since departed with you yet so gloomy and dull have they past that it already seems like an age, how different is the meeting and the separating of friends when I meet you I was happy but when I parted with you I fealt such disagreeabl sensations as are not to be described I have frequently recal1d to mind the many pleasant hours I have spent in your company your sisters and a number of other Ladies and gentlemen the sensation exist at seeing us all in your parlour by a good fire and fancy spending a social hour together alass thoss scenes are past exist now but in idea and in that have three pains and three pleasurs why is my heart heavy at times I wish that I was with you or reather that you was with me. I found two gentlemen in the stage they were very socible but I could not join them in conversation I feelt so gloomy I could not be socable pleas to remember me respectfully to your Worthy Parents Miss Mary and Miss Esther whom I shall never forgit my love to Esther tell her I excpted her little heart as a token of her love and that she may be assurd that I shall keep it, say how do for me to Mr C and the little heart which he presented to me as a token of friendship I shall aways keep in my possession. I cannot mak the observation of thoss little trifles they seem to me. My love to Nancy I have not time to wright to evry one but yourself or should have note tell John he must make that visit he promised me. Please excuse my writing I have a pen that is a most impossable to wright with Mrs. Arceny sends her Compliments to your Parents and Aunts your sisters and yourself, My best regards with thanks are due to all my acquaintance in Stonington for there politness to me while with them and when they ask after your friend will accept my love and My Dear Mary will never forgit her share is large and unfringed in the heart of her affectionate friend
Betsy M. Luthorn
PS wright me by the next Post the good tells and bad over it makes no differance with me tell Esther that my Books is not at home Mrs. A Sent them in my abcence but will git them and send them by the first oppertunity there is to be a quilting in the Neighbourhood next Thursday and I wish you was to be here then very much… such a one as that you was at when here do pray wright me by the Post if but two lines
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1802-07-07
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.131
catalog number
6873.131
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1804-03-30
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.139
catalog number
6873.139
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1801-03-07
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
Copp, Dolly Emery
recipient
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
Copp, Dolly
ID Number
DL.006873.113
catalog number
6873.113
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1806-09-17
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.159
catalog number
6873.159
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1806-01-22
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.151
catalog number
6873.151
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800-03-02
recipient
Copp, Esther
maker
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.098
catalog number
6873.098
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1805-09-04
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.148
catalog number
6873.148
accession number
28810
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
18th century
ID Number
CL.65.1141
catalog number
65.1141
accession number
256396
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1806-01-25
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.152
catalog number
6873.152
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1802-11-20
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Esther
recipient
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.134
catalog number
6873.134
accession number
28810
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s.
Description
The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1807-10-19
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
ID Number
DL.006873.176
catalog number
6873.176
accession number
28810

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