Cultures & Communities

Cleveland Many Peoples One Language Poster

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.

Date: 1800s

Letter to Esther Copp from Lucinda Fitch

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
1802-01-03
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.120
accession number
28810
catalog number
6873.120

Letter to family from Samuel Copp and reply from Mary Copp

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
1804-09-19
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Mary Esther
recipient
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Mary
maker
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.141
catalog number
6873.141
accession number
28810

T. Johnson Tavern Sign

date made
1804
ID Number
CL.65.0978
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.0978

Letter to Esther Copp from E. Phelps

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
1802-02-14
recipient
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.124
catalog number
6873.124
accession number
28810

Letter to Samuel Copp from Peleg Brown

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
1805-06-23
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Brown, Peleg
originator (author, etc.)
Brown, Peleg
ID Number
DL.006873.147
catalog number
6873.147
accession number
28810

New Bedford Whaleship Crew List

Every whaling voyage began with assembling a crew from whatever labor pool was available in a port city at a particular time. In New Bedford in late May 1876, 31 men signed to work aboard the 106-foot bark Bartholomew Gosnold for its next voyage.
Description
Every whaling voyage began with assembling a crew from whatever labor pool was available in a port city at a particular time. In New Bedford in late May 1876, 31 men signed to work aboard the 106-foot bark Bartholomew Gosnold for its next voyage. Less than half were from the United States; the rest were from Portugal, England, Ireland, Germany, France and Scotland. The two Frenchmen and one of the eight Portuguese were listed as blacks; the remaining men were of light or brown complexion. Four each of the crew were in their forties and thirties; 16 were in their twenties, and six were in their teens. Three of these teenagers, all from the New Bedford area, were only 16 years old when they shipped out.
date made
1876-05
ID Number
TR.103009.03
catalog number
103009.03
accession number
12006

Letter to Mary Copp from Samuel Copp

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
1806-05-21
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.155
catalog number
6873.155
accession number
28810

Letter to Mary Copp from Samuel Copp

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

Letter to Esther Copp from Samuel Copp

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
1804-03-21
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Esther
recipient
Copp, Jr., Samuel
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.138
catalog number
6873.138
accession number
28810

Letter to Miss Esther Copp from Ann Copp

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
1800-10-19
recipient
Copp, Esther
maker
Copp, Nancy
ID Number
DL.006873.100
catalog number
6873.100
accession number
28810

Face Vessel

Between the late 1600s and the Civil War, the rapid growth of the southern plantation economy and a sparse white population led to increasing reliance on the labor of enslaved blacks. Most were agricultural laborers, but a significant number were craftspeople.
Description
Between the late 1600s and the Civil War, the rapid growth of the southern plantation economy and a sparse white population led to increasing reliance on the labor of enslaved blacks. Most were agricultural laborers, but a significant number were craftspeople. Among these skilled slaves were a small number of potters working in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Anecdotal and archeological evidence has been used to establish that enslaved potters were making face vessels in the Edgefield area before the Civil War.
The origins of the southern face vessel tradition are largely un-documented. Some enslaved black potters in South Carolina certainly began making face vessels in the mid 1800s, possibly inspired by African burial rituals or as charms used in religious ceremonies. The contrasting eyes and teeth on most of the slave-made face vessels are kaolin clay, a key ingredient in the manufacture of porcelain. The Edgefield area of South Carolina was known in the 1700s and 1800s for its rich supply of kaolin.
A number of face vessels have been linked stylistically to enslaved potters at Thomas Davies’ Palmetto Firebrick Works, which operated in the mid-1860s, and Lewis Miles’s Stoney Bluff and Miles Mill potteries operating from about 1837-1894. As late as 1900, ceramics historian Edwin A. Barber felt it was necessary to state that face vessels similar to these were not made in Africa, as was supposed by some collectors, but by African American potters who were enslaved at Edgefield potteries.
This face vessel came to the museum as part of a large group of ceramics from the estate of Marcus Benjamin, a collector of American pottery.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
mid 1800s
maker
unknown
ID Number
CE.379677
catalog number
379677
accession number
150313

Letter to Mrs. Esinis Chesebrough from Esther Copp

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
1801-05-24
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Copp, Esther
ID Number
DL.006873.105
catalog number
6873.105
accession number
28810

Letter to Samuel Copp from Clarissa Hartland

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
1807-02-23
recipient
Copp, Jr., Samuel
ID Number
DL.006873.168
catalog number
6873.168
accession number
28810

Letter to "Dear Sisters" from Dolly Copp Brewster

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
1807-07-08
ID Number
DL.006873.175
catalog number
6873.175
accession number
28810

Whaler's Explosive Lance

Explosive lances were designed to kill a whale by exploding inside its body. Many different types were invented in the late 19th century. When they worked properly, they were extremely efficient.They could either be shot out of guns or set at the end of darting guns.
Description
Explosive lances were designed to kill a whale by exploding inside its body. Many different types were invented in the late 19th century. When they worked properly, they were extremely efficient.
They could either be shot out of guns or set at the end of darting guns. These devices resembled harpoon handles, to which the explosive lances were fixed. Once a plunger touching the whale’s skin moved a specific length, it triggered an explosive charge that shot the lance into the whale’s body.
date made
late 1800s
patent date
1879
explosive lances were invented
late 19th century
patentee
Pierce, Eben
manufacturer
Brown, Frank E.
ID Number
AG.316544
catalog number
316544
accession number
066767

Letter to "Dear Children" from Samuel and Dolly Copp

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

Letter to Esther Copp from Sarah Rathbone

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
1802-05-15
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
recipient
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
ID Number
DL.006873.129
catalog number
6873.129
accession number
28810

Letter to Mary Copp from Betsy Luthorn

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

Letter to Mary and Esther Copp from Sarah Rathbone

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

Letter to Mary Copp from Esther Copp

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

Bride's Box

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

Letter to Mary Copp from Sarah Rathbone

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
1808-06-19
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
recipient
Copp, Mary Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
ID Number
DL.006873.187
catalog number
6873.187
accession number
28810

Eagle Figure

Eagle figure. Made of painted wood.
Description (Brief)
Eagle figure. Made of painted wood. Wings spread stylized--flat process of wood, slightly hollowed out by carving, head facing right, black and white eyes, stright legs with no feeth, dark reddish brown back, beak, and crown; dark blue, stomach gray with black streaks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1800
ID Number
CL.65.1083
catalog number
65.1083
accession number
261195
collector/donor number
T-40

Letter to Esther Copp from Sarah Rathbone

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
1802-01-13
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
recipient
Copp, Esther
originator (author, etc.)
Rathbone, Sarah
ID Number
DL.006873.122
catalog number
6873.122
accession number
28810

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.