Cultures & Communities - Overview
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.
"Cultures & Communities - Overview" showing 5 items.
Engraved plate, Discovery of the New World
- Description
- The engraved copper plate "Discovery of the New World" was used to print illustration number six in Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio, an account of Columbus's expeditions published in Austria in 1621. The plate was engraved by Wolfgang Kilian (1581–1662), one of a distinguished family of artists and engravers from Augsburg, Germany. The scene represents European explorers being welcomed at a feast by Native Americans.
- The publication was dedicated to Caspar Plautius, Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Seitenstetten, where the book was published. Plautius also has been suggested as the author of the work, which treats the exploration and discovery of the Americas and the role of Benedictine priests as missionaries. The Benedictines, under Father Bernardo Boyl or Buell, were sent by the King of Spain to Christianize the native peoples of the New World. The plate came to the Smithsonian in 1905 from the Seitenstetten monastery, through Prof. P. Joseph Schock. Several impressions were printed from the plate in 1913.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1621
- maker
- Kilian, Wolfgang
- ID Number
- GA*07252
- catalog number
- 07252
- accession number
- 45209
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hernan Cortes
- Description
- This engraving shows Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), the Spanish captain who headed the conquest of the Aztec Empire. He became a part of popular mythology the moment he arrived in Mexico in 1521. Cortés had spent time in Cuba killing and enslaving its indigenous inhabitants and administering the new social order of the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean. As his well-read memoirs attest, even his experiences in Cuba did not prepare him for the history-altering intrigues, battles, and cultural encounters between the Spanish and the Mexicans, Mayas, and their many neighbors in between. Motivated by an ancient notion of fame, Hernán Cortés wrote his own version of the conquest of Mexico that put him squarely at the center, favored by the Christian God. But neither his victories nor his pillage of the Mexican capital would have been possible without the aid of soldiers, slaves, and supplies from the enemies of the Aztecs. As a testament to Cortés's enduring fame, his portrait by the Spanish painter Antonio Carnicero was published as an engraving by Manuel Salvador y Carmona in 1791 in the book, Retratos de los españoles ilustres, con un epítome de sus vidas, (Portraits of Illustrious Spaniards, with a Synopsis of Their Lives.)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1795
- depicted
- Cortes, Hernan
- original artist
- Carnicero, D. A.
- graphic artist
- Carmona, D. J. A.
- ID Number
- GA*20683
- catalog number
- 20683
- accession number
- 226630
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Map of North and South America
- Description
- This map of North and South America appeared as part of a seven-volume historic atlas published in Paris between 1705 and 1720. It was also issued separately, and its large size together with its companion lower half suggest its use as a wall chart. Only a detail is shown here. Circular portraits identify nine great explorers, including Columbus, Magellan, and Vespucci. Five voyages of discovery are marked on the Pacific Ocean, the southern ocean of the title.
- Elaborate engraved vignettes depict beavers building a dam, Native Americans hunting and fishing, and other men salting and drying codfish. Niagara Falls is pictured, and California is shown as an island, although the growing belief that it was part of the continent is noted.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1719
- graphic artist
- Chatelain, Henri Abraham
- ID Number
- GA*313248.01a
- catalog number
- 313248.01
- accession number
- 313248
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Buffalo Chase
- Description
- Wohaw, aka Beef, Wolf Robe, Gu hau de (Kiowa),
- drawn between 1875 and 1878 at Fort Marion, Florida
- "Buffalo Chase"
- Collected by Richard Henry Pratt about 1878
- Pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor
- Wohaw's drawing shows a party of Kiowa warriors participating in a buffalo hunt. The warriors ride tightly together behind the herd. One buffalo has been successfully killed.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1875-1878
- original artist
- Wohaw
- ID Number
- 2008.0175.53
- catalog number
- 2008.0175.053
- accession number
- 2008.0175
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
In Pursuit of Game
- Description
- Shave Head, or O-uk-ste-uh (Cheyenne),
- drawn between 1875 and 1878 at Fort Marion, Florida
- “In Pursuit of Game”
- Collected by Richard Henry Pratt about 1878
- Pencil, colored pencil, ink and colored ink
- This drawing shows two Cheyenne warriors hiding and hunting in a wooded area. Buffalo, elk, a turkey, and a flying bird are present. One of the warriors points his rifle towards the elk and buffalo. The other warrior aims his arrow at the flying bird.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1875-1878
- original artist
- Shave Head
- ID Number
- 2008.0175.55
- accession number
- 2008.0175
- catalog number
- 2008.0175.055
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center