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.

Working on assignment, Henry Horenstein photographed EmmyLou Harris (b. 1947) at her home. In the 1970s, Harris represented the generation of musicians who were influenced by traditional country, rock, and folk music.
Description
Working on assignment, Henry Horenstein photographed EmmyLou Harris (b. 1947) at her home. In the 1970s, Harris represented the generation of musicians who were influenced by traditional country, rock, and folk music. Over the years, Harris has had a profound impact on contemporary popular and country music.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1980
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.034
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.034
Henry Horenstein (1948-) trained in history in the late 1960s at the University of Chicago and with the British historian EP Thompson.
Description
Henry Horenstein (1948-) trained in history in the late 1960s at the University of Chicago and with the British historian EP Thompson. Coming of age at time when the new social history focused attention upon anonymous people, the working class and the role of culture, Horenstein took those lessons and applied them to his photography. He earned an MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1973. While at RISD Horenstein studied with noted photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. It was actually Callahan who encouraged Horenstein to pursue his passions for photography and country music. Since then, Horenstein has made a career of chronicling a series of subcultures including horse-racing and gambling, baseball stadiums, and burlesque performers, as well as being noted for his photographs of animals.
Horenstein is currently a professor at RISD. In addition to teaching classes, he is an active photographer always working on photographic and publishing projects. Horenstein is well-published, with over 25 books that either feature his photography or are widely used photography text books. He wrote the first darkroom textbooks, Basic Phtography and Beyond Basic Photgraphy. In Fall 2003, his book Honky-Tonk was published, containing an afterword written by NMAH curator Charlie McGovern. In 2006, NMAH featured the exhibition, Honky-Tonk: Country Music Photographs by Henry Horenstein, 1972-1981.
The collection consists of subjects such as fans and performers at outdoor music parks, in the parking lot, and performers on stage. Print sizes vary between 8 X 10 and 11X 14. The two 16 X 20 prints are a view of a crowd seen from backstage with JD Crowe & The South in sillouette, and “Bartender,” Wanda Lohnman leaning on the bar at Tootsies Orchid Lounge.
List of Performers and Venues Depicted in the Collection:
Venues:
Fred’s Lounge in Mamou, LA
The Lonestar Ranch, Reed’s Ferry, NH
Hillbilly Ranch, Boston, MA
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville, TN;
The Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Theater, Nashville, TN.
Performers:
Abshire Nathan
Acuff, Roy
Akeman, David “Stringbean”
Bailey, Deford
Bare, Bobby
Bird, Billy
Blake, Norman
Blue Sky Boys
Brown, Clarence "Gatemouth"
Burns, Jethro
Butler, Carl and Pearl
Carter, Anita
Carter, Mother Maybelle and Helen Carter
Cash, Tommy
Clements, Vassar
Cline, Curly Ray
Cooper, Carol Lee
Cooper, Stoney and Wilma Lee
Crook Brothers
Curless, Dick
Dickens, Little Jimmy
Flatt, Lester
Floyd, Hamonica Frank
Harkreader, Fiddlin' Sid
Harris, Emmy Lou
Holcomb, Roscoe
Holy Modal Rounders
Hughes Family Show
Jackson, Stonewall
JD Crowe & the New South
Jennings, Waylon
Johnson Mountain Boys
Jones, George
Jones, Grandpa and Ramona
Kirby, Brother Oswald
Lewis, Jerry Lee
Lilly Brothers
Lilly Family
Lynn, Loretta
Magaha, Mac
Martin, Jimmy
McCoury, Del
Monroe, Bill
Monroe, Bill and Lester Flatt
Monroe, Bill and Roland White
Monroe, Bill and the Bluegrass Boys
Monroe, Charlie
Moody, Clyde
Nixon, Charlie
Osborne Brothers
Parton, Dolly
Parton, Dolly and Porter Wagoner
Pearl, Minnie (Sarah Ophelia Colley) and Peewee King
Riley, Jeannie C.
Ritter, Woodward Maurice “Tex”
Seeger, Pete
Shepherd, Jean
Skaggs, Ricky
Smith, Connie
Snow, Hank
Snow, Rev. Jimmy Rodgers
Stanley, Ralph
Tubb, Ernest
Tubb, Justin
Turner, Grant
Turner, Spyder
Val, Joe
Wagoner, Porter
Warren, Paul
Watson, Arthel Lane “Doc”
Watson, Merle
Wells, Muriel Deason “Kitty”
Whitley, Keith
Williams, Hank Jr.
Wright, Johnny
date made
1971 - 1983
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
COLL.PHOTOS.000036
The Johnson Mountain Boys was a traditional bluegrass band formed in the Washington, D.C. suburbs in the 1970s. Its members were vocalist, banjoist, and guitarist Dudley Connell, David McLauglin, fiddler Eddie Stubbs, and bassist Larry Robbins.
Description
The Johnson Mountain Boys was a traditional bluegrass band formed in the Washington, D.C. suburbs in the 1970s. Its members were vocalist, banjoist, and guitarist Dudley Connell, David McLauglin, fiddler Eddie Stubbs, and bassist Larry Robbins. Connell worked for Smithsonian Folkways for a time and Stubbs went on to host the Grand Ole Opry.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1981
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.030
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.030
The "Queen of Country Music," Kitty Wells, (Ellen Muriel Deason, b. 1918) emerged in 1952 as the first female country vocalist to win and sustain major stardom.
Description
The "Queen of Country Music," Kitty Wells, (Ellen Muriel Deason, b. 1918) emerged in 1952 as the first female country vocalist to win and sustain major stardom. Her release, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,"--a lyrical response to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life"--was a hit. Wells and her husband, Johnny Wright, continued to work a full schedule well into the 1990s.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1983
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.073
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.073
This is a Bata Cubana, or Cuban Rumba dress, donated to the Smithsonian by Celia Cruz, the great Cuban salsa singer in 1997. An adaptation of the traditional Cuban rumba dress, it was made in the United States by Cuban-born designer José Arteaga.
Description
This is a Bata Cubana, or Cuban Rumba dress, donated to the Smithsonian by Celia Cruz, the great Cuban salsa singer in 1997. An adaptation of the traditional Cuban rumba dress, it was made in the United States by Cuban-born designer José Arteaga. The Bata Cubana has its roots in the 19th century, with origins as diverse as the multicultural makeup of the people of Cuba. It brings together influences from Spanish, French, and African culture and dress, combining theater, fiesta, and the spectacle of carnival with slave and gypsy dress. The Bata Cubana is a garment worn for performance on stage or cabaret. Celia Cruz's Bata Cubana is made of orange polyester satin, trimmed with white nylon eyelet along ruffle-edges and eyelet beading along seams with inserted orange ribbon. The Bata Cubana was Celia's preferred performance costume.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1973 - 1987
Associated Name
Cruz, Celia
designer
Arteaga, Enrique
ID Number
1997.0291.01
accession number
1997.0291
Acupuncture has gone in and out of fashion over the centuries in both China and the West. Part of a 2,000-year-old system of medicine that originated in China, acupuncture spread across Asia and the world with the migration of Asian peoples.
Description
Acupuncture has gone in and out of fashion over the centuries in both China and the West. Part of a 2,000-year-old system of medicine that originated in China, acupuncture spread across Asia and the world with the migration of Asian peoples. In 2002, there were about 15,000 licensed acupuncturists in the United States.
Despite its continuous currency in Asian cultures, acupuncture did not gain a wide audience in the United States until the 1960s and 1970s. The revival of interest came on the heels of reports from several American physicians traveling in China, New York Times reporter James Reston's dramatic 1971 acupuncture treatment following an emergency appendectomy while in China, and Richard Nixon's historic 1972 visit.
Acupuncture involves the application of very small needles inserted at specific points on the skin. The needles work to balance the body's flow of qi (pronounced chee). According to Taoist religious teachings, qi encompasses the fundamental life force that flows throughout the universe.
As practiced today, acupuncture is an East-West hybrid. Its transnational character emerged in the early 20th century as Western influence became more pronounced in medical schools in mainland China in the decades before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In those years of the Chinese Republic, traditional Chinese medicine was discouraged as intellectual elites pressed for modernization and practitioners felt imperialist pressures from the West and Japan. After 1949, the communist PRC regime encouraged traditional Chinese medicine, and the system developed as understood today through the establishment of several medical schools and training sites. Later, traditional practitioners cautiously welcomed Western, allopathic knowledge in the 1960s and 1970s as overseas Chinese, trained in the West, returned home with scientific ideas.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1988
maker
Hwa To Brand
ID Number
1989.0196.082
catalog number
1989.0196.082
accession number
1989.0196
Activists directed much of their rage at the Reagan administration; the prersident remained largly silent about the epidemic until 1987 when he declared AIDS "public health enemy number one."Currently not on view
Description
Activists directed much of their rage at the Reagan administration; the prersident remained largly silent about the epidemic until 1987 when he declared AIDS "public health enemy number one."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1986
about 1990
about 1989
maker
Donnelly/Colt
ID Number
2011.0052.01
catalog number
2011.0052.01
accession number
2011.0052
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1980
1980-1985
wearer
Gonzales, Rebecca
maker
Salazar, Jose Luis
manufacturer of fabric
Liberty & Co.
ID Number
2009.0252.01
catalog number
2009.0252.01
accession number
2009.0252
Photograph of B-girl Laneski with the breakdance group, Majestic Rockers in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970.
Description (Brief)
Photograph of B-girl Laneski with the breakdance group, Majestic Rockers in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
depicted
B-Girl Laneski
ID Number
2006.0192.03
accession number
2006.0192
catalog number
2006.0192.03
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1976
1985
ID Number
2015.0237.08a
catalog number
2015.0237.08a
accession number
2015.0237
Photograph of B-girl Laneski in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (bornLane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers.
Description (Brief)
Photograph of B-girl Laneski in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (bornLane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
depicted
B-Girl Laneski
ID Number
2006.0192.05
accession number
2006.0192
catalog number
2006.0192.05
B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), wore these shoes around 1984-1985. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers.
Description (Brief)
B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), wore these shoes around 1984-1985. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s. These Three Stripe Basketball model sneakers were popular with hip hop artists such as Run-DMC in the 1980s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1984
user
B-Girl Laneski
maker
Adidas
ID Number
2006.0192.02
accession number
2006.0192
catalog number
2006.0192.02
Photograph of B-girl Laneski with the breakdance group, Majestic Rockers in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970.
Description (Brief)
Photograph of B-girl Laneski with the breakdance group, Majestic Rockers in New York City, 1985. B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985
depicted
B-Girl Laneski
ID Number
2006.0192.06
accession number
2006.0192
catalog number
2006.0192.06
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1976
1985
ID Number
2015.0237.08c
catalog number
2015.0237.08c
accession number
2015.0237
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1981
recipient
Robinson, Jr., Franklin A.
distributor
Catholic University of America
ID Number
2011.0093.06
accession number
2011.0093
catalog number
2011.0093.06
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1976
1985
ID Number
2015.0237.08b
catalog number
2015.0237.08b
accession number
2015.0237
This E-mu P-12 sampling drum computer was first released in 1986 by E-mu Systems. It is a drum sampler machine at twelve bits, allowing the user to sample and augment drum sounds.
Description
This E-mu P-12 sampling drum computer was first released in 1986 by E-mu Systems. It is a drum sampler machine at twelve bits, allowing the user to sample and augment drum sounds. It has a 5000-note memory enabling the E-mu P-12 to store 100 songs.
E-mu Systems was founded in 1971 as a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer based in Scotts Valley, California.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1985-1986
maker
E-mu Systems, Inc.
ID Number
2006.0164.01
accession number
2006.0164
catalog number
2006.0164.01
serial number
1950
model number
7021
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1980
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.359
catalog number
2014.0112.359
accession number
2014.0112
These shoes were made by Puma, circa 1984. The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was founded by Rudolph and Adolph Dassler, in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1924.
Description (Brief)
These shoes were made by Puma, circa 1984. The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was founded by Rudolph and Adolph Dassler, in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1924. The company manufactured track shoes for professional athletes and by 1948, split into two companies, Puma and Adidas.
These Puma Clyde model shoes, named after New York Knicks basketball star Walt “Clyde” Frazier who wore and endorsed them, were popular with graffiti artists in the 1970s and later with hip hop artists in the 1980s.
B-Girl Laneski, (born Lane Davey), wore these shoes around 1984-1985. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. Later moving to Seattle, she enrolled in a breakdancing class in 1983, taught by the Seattle Circuit Breakers. The group was impressed with her dancing skills and subsequently gave her the name LaneSki. A pioneer in the male dominated Hip Hop world, Laneski was one of the first female breakdancers to master and develop many of the dance moves created in the early 1980s.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1984
user
B-Girl Laneski
maker
Puma
ID Number
2006.0192.01
accession number
2006.0192
catalog number
2006.0192.01
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans.
Description
The evolving civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s revolutionized the consciousness of young people across the United States. As in African American communities, a new sense of mobilization spread among Mexican Americans. Many adopted a more political identity—chicano and chicana—and explored their history, which was omitted from school textbooks. The Chicano movement sought to remedy the injustices experienced by many Mexican Americans, from substandard education and housing to working conditions. Many symbols and ideas of the Chicano movement were taken from the pre-Hispanic past, especially Aztec history. Aztlán, the original homeland in the Aztec migration stories, has an important place in Chicano mythology. As a symbolic reclamation of their place in American history, Chicanos locate Aztlán in the Southwest United States, in the area conquered during the Mexican-American War. The image shown here, by Manuel Moya, is an ink drawing done on a handkerchief known as a paño. Paños are graphic art works drawn on handkerchiefs by Chicano prisoners in California, Texas, and the Southwest. Titled, La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, or The New Land in Aztlán, combines the images of the Aztec past with a Pancho Villa-like figure from the Mexican Revolution.
Description (Spanish)
El movimiento por los derechos civiles que se desarrolló entre las décadas de 1950, 1960 y 1970, revolucionó las conciencias de los jóvenes a los largo de los Estados Unidos. Al igual que en las comunidades afroamericanas, también se difundió entre los mexicoamericanos un nuevo sentido de movilización. Muchos adoptaron una identidad de carácter más político—chicano y chicana—y empezaron a explorar su historia, la cual había quedado omitida de los libros de texto escolares. El movimiento chicano buscó remediar las injusticias experimentadas por muchos mexicoamericanos, tales como condiciones educativas, de vivienda y de trabajo inferiores al estándar. Muchos símbolos e ideas del movimiento chicano se extrajeron del pasado prehispánico, especialmente de la historia azteca. Aztlán, la patria original aludida en las historias migratorias de los aztecas, ocupa un lugar de relieve en la mitología chicana. Como reclamo simbólico de su lugar en la historia americana, los chicanos ubican a Aztlán en el sudoeste de los Estados Unidos, en el área conquistada durante la guerra mexicoamericana. La imagen que se observa aquí, del artista Manuel Moya, es un dibujo en tinta hecho sobre un pañuelo o paño. Los paños son obras de arte gráfico diseñadas sobre pañuelos por los prisioneros chicanos en California, Texas y la región sudoeste. Titulado La Tierra Nueva en Aztlán, combina las imágenes del pasado azteca con una figura estilo Pancho Villa de la Revolución Mexicana.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1986
artist
Moya, Manuel
ID Number
1991.0431.01
catalog number
1991.0431.01
accession number
1991.0431
This headwrap dating between 1972 and 1984 was worn by Fath Davis Ruffins, an African American woman in Washington, DC.
Description
This headwrap dating between 1972 and 1984 was worn by Fath Davis Ruffins, an African American woman in Washington, DC. Ruffins bought the fabric for this headwrap and matching dress, which is also in the Smithsonian collections, at an African shop on Georgia Avenue in Washington, DC. It was made in 1972 but was worn as part of a summer "dress-up" outfit through 1984. Elaborately tied headwraps were worn by young African American women during this period to acknowledge their West African ancestral roots.
The flat cotton rectangular panel is a large floral "Java Print" in three shades of green with yellow accents on a cream background with a dark green with yellow floral design border. The forty-six inch long rectangle is narrower on one short side (twenty inches) than the other (inches) with stitched edges. "Guaranteed Dutch Java Print" is stamped on the selvage.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1972-1984
used by
Ruffins, Fath Davis
maker
Ruffins, Fath Davis
ID Number
1992.0456.001
accession number
1992.0456
catalog number
1992.0456.001
This cuatro belonged to Puerto Rican musician Yomo Toro. Born and raised in the southern town of Guánica, Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro established himself as a musician in 1950s New York playing cuatro and guitar with multiple bands.
Description

This cuatro belonged to Puerto Rican musician Yomo Toro. Born and raised in the southern town of Guánica, Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro established himself as a musician in 1950s New York playing cuatro and guitar with multiple bands. In 1970, he played cuatro on Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe's hit Christmas salsa album Asalto Navideño. His innovative playing combined traditional Puerto Rican seises and aguinaldos with Cuban son and jazz. He went on to tour with the Fania All-Stars, playing this cuatro alongside artists like Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, and countless others.

This instrument was made in the 1980s by Diómedes "Yomi" Matos, a Puerto Rican luthier and 2006 National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage Fellow. The top is yagrumo while the back and sides are made of guaraguao. It is fitted with a Gibson electromagnetic pickup, which allows the cuatro to be amplified so it can be heard over a loud salsa band by crowds of thousands.

Description (Spanish)

Este cuatro le perteneció al músico puertorriqueño Yomo Toro. Nacido y criado en el pueblo sureño de Guánica, Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro se estableció como músico en Nueva York en los años 50, tocando cuatro y guitarra con varias agrupaciones. En el 1970 tocó cuatro en el álbum de salsa navideño Asalto Navideño de Willie Colón y Héctor Lavoe. Con su estilo innovador combinó los seises y aguinaldos puertorriqueños con el son cubano y el jazz. Poco después se unió de lleno a la Fania All-Star, usando este cuatro para tocar junto a artistas como Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Larry Harlow, entre muchísimos otros.

Este instrumento fue fabricado en los años 80 por Diómedes "Yomi" Matos, lutier puertorriqueño nombrado National Heritage Fellow por el Fondo Nacional para las Artes (National Endowment for the Arts). El tope está hecho de yagrumo y los lados y el fondo de guaraguao. El cuatro también está equipado con una pastilla electromagnética Gibson que permite amplificar el sonido del instrumento para que se escuche por encima de una banda de salsa ante públicos de miles de personas.

Location
Currently not on view
date made
1980
user
Toro, Yomo
maker
Yomi Matos
ID Number
2002.0350.01
accession number
2002.0350
catalog number
2002.0350.01
This homemade costume was made for the Ponce carnival. It has a cape attached at the neck made from the same black and red striped fabric (black and red are the colors of the city of Ponce).
Description
This homemade costume was made for the Ponce carnival. It has a cape attached at the neck made from the same black and red striped fabric (black and red are the colors of the city of Ponce). Carnival participants who wear costumes like this one, in addition to a mask, and other carnival accoutrements like matching shoes, canes, and gloves, are called vejigantes. Vejigantes are famous for playfully swatting at carnival-goers with a vejiga, a dried, inflated bladder. When a real animal bladder in not available, an empty water bottle is an acceptable substitute.
Description (Spanish)
Este disfraz casero se confeccionó para el carnaval de Ponce. Lleva una capa adherida al cuello, hecha del mismo género de franjas negras y rojas (el negro y el rojo son los colores de la ciudad de Ponce). A los participantes del carnaval que visten trajes como éste -además de la máscara y otros accesorios, como calzado haciendo juego, bastones y guantes- se los llaman vejigantes. Los vejigantes son famosos por deambular por las calles dando palmadas con sus vejigas (vejigas infladas y secas) a los concurrentes a la celebración. En caso de no contarse con vejigas reales de animales, se aceptan como sustitutos botellas de agua vacía.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1980
ID Number
1997.0097.0047
accession number
1997.0097
catalog number
1997.0097.0047
Carnival celebrations featuring performers dressed as devils are found in Puerto Rico and the rest Latin America. The presence of these characters during Carnival is understood by many as an ancient reference to the contest between good and evil.
Description
Carnival celebrations featuring performers dressed as devils are found in Puerto Rico and the rest Latin America. The presence of these characters during Carnival is understood by many as an ancient reference to the contest between good and evil. The devilish mask pictured here was made for the carnaval de Ponce. Its collector, Teodoro Vidal, played a key role in publicizing the Ponce carnival and documenting its traditions of mask making and public performance.
Description (Spanish)
Las celebraciones de carnaval durante las cuales se observan individuos disfrazados de diablos son comunes en Puerto Rico y el resto de América Latina. Muchos interpretan la presencia de estos personajes durante el carnaval como una antigua referencia a la contienda entre el bien y el mal. La máscara diabólica que aquí se representa fue confeccionada para el Carnaval de Ponce. Su coleccionista, Teodoro Vidal, desempeñó un papel fundamental en la promoción del Carnaval de Ponce mediante la documentación de sus artesanías de máscaras y dramatizaciones públicas.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1980
ID Number
1997.0097.0024
accession number
1997.0097
catalog number
1997.0097.0024

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