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.

The process of manufacturing such baskets is called "sewing," but it is actually a process of binding and coiling long strands of grass.
Description
The process of manufacturing such baskets is called "sewing," but it is actually a process of binding and coiling long strands of grass. In the wetlands, two kinds of grasses are used; "sweetgrass," and more recently, black rush, also known as "bullrush." Strips of oak wood, or palmetto fronds are used to bind together long bundles of grass, which are then coiled into a particular shape. Makeshift tools, such as broken-off spoons, flattened nails, or cow ribs are used for the coiling and binding process. Sometimes, colored grasses or pine needles are used in the show baskets, although the use of sweetgrass, bulrush, and palmetto is standard.
Today, the role of the men and boys is to gather the materials, the women do the weaving and market the baskets. Until recently, baskets were sold from family-operated roadside stands, but increasingly, they are sold at county fairs and cultural festivals. Many of the older women regarded basketmaking as a carefully guarded community secret, but many of the younger women give basketmaking seminars to people from outside of the communities. The women of an earlier generation were not always comfortable with the term "gullah", younger women tend to recognize its historical and cultural value.
Today, the baskets are for domestic and decorative purposes, rather than agricultural use, and there is a much wider variety of shapes than when baskets were used on the plantations. Some coil weaving produces wall decorations, ladies' hats, and men's caps. Although there are no fixed rules for terminology, certain shapes are often given specific names. Some of the named shapes are for placing utensils inside the baskets.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1970
ID Number
CL.298252.18
collector/donor number
C.26.1
accession number
298252
catalog number
298252.18
This is a modern fanner basket made in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, around 1972 by a member of the Manigault family of basket sewers. Fanner baskets were originally associated with the growth of rice as a cash crop in the Lowcountry coastal regions in the 1700s and 1800s.
Description
This is a modern fanner basket made in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, around 1972 by a member of the Manigault family of basket sewers. Fanner baskets were originally associated with the growth of rice as a cash crop in the Lowcountry coastal regions in the 1700s and 1800s. West Africans who knew how to cultivate the complicated rice plants were especially valued by slaveholders. These shallow baskets were made of coils of grass and used to remove the rice grains from the husks. Pounded grains of raw rice were placed in fanner baskets so that the rice could be tossed in the air or dropped from one basket into another. Through this process, the wind blew away the chaff and the rice would be ready for processing. The original fanner baskets were much larger. Some were more than three feet or more in diameter. These modern fanner baskets are much smaller, made to be decorative and are often used in homes as platters. The distinctive Lowcountry region of the Carolinas and Georgia and the nearby Atlantic Sea Islands culture are now part of the National Park Service as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
date made
1972
ID Number
CL.298252.38
accession number
298252
catalog number
298252.38
collector/donor number
R.3
A.1.5
The tradition of shaping human likenesses on ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. Face vessels held different meanings in different cultures around the world.
Description
The tradition of shaping human likenesses on ceramic vessels is thousands of years old. Face vessels held different meanings in different cultures around the world. Some were probably used in burial rituals, others satirized the person whose features were captured in clay, and still others were made just for fun.
Potters rarely signed their face vessels before the the 1920s, making attribution difficult. The maker of this face vessel, on the right, is not known. It features rough white clay to represent the teeth and eyes, much as the slave-made pieces used kaolin pieces.
This piece came to the Museum as part of the Van Alstyne Collection of American Folk Art. Eleanor and Mabel Van Alstyne collected more than 300 examples of American folk art over a period of about 40 years.
Location
Currently not on view (base)
Currently not on view
date made
late 1800s-early 1900s
Date made
c. 1850-1860
maker
unknown
ID Number
CE.65.1066
catalog number
65.1066
accession number
256396
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1965-02-22
graphic artist
News Syndicate Co., Inc.
ID Number
2012.3028.01
accession number
2012.3028
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800-1803
maker
Commeraw, Thomas
ID Number
2015.0339.01
catalog number
2015.0339.01
accession number
2015.0339
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
ID Number
2016.0099.01a
catalog number
2016.0099.01a
accession number
2016.0099
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 banjo was made by an unknown maker in the United States around 1835-1865. It has undergone considerable scrutiny and analysis at the Smithsonian because of its attribution to American slave origins. So far, studies have been inconclusive.
Description
This banjo was made by an unknown maker in the United States around 1835-1865. It has undergone considerable scrutiny and analysis at the Smithsonian because of its attribution to American slave origins. So far, studies have been inconclusive. While the sun design carved on the body may have African origins, the polygonal shape, wood top (instead of a skin), and carved head pegbox lie outside the traditions of banjos brought to America by Africans. Nevertheless, the instrument was likely made by someone familiar with Black culture.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1835-1865
ID Number
1990.0164.01
accession number
1990.0164
catalog number
1990.0164.01
The Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sprang up in rural areas across the South following the Civil War, providing a place of rest and community for freed slaves.
Description
The Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church sprang up in rural areas across the South following the Civil War, providing a place of rest and community for freed slaves. Even if church services only occurred once or twice a month when a traveling minister visited, the house of worship provided not only a place to rekindle faith but as a school and meeting house for fraternal clubs. Homecomings came around harvest time, bringing visitors from across the country. Relatives and neighbors who had moved away came back to spend time with family, sharing stories of their lives in northern cities. The often-embellished picture of northern urban life painted at such reunions encouraged others to contemplate boarding trains north.
World War I brought a new era of industrial opportunity for African Americans, But as production demands grew, wartime recruitment took away traditionally white and immigrant factory workers. Northern labor recruiters, newspapers, and word-of-mouth spread news of higher wages and regular work being offered to African Americans willing to move. Desire for better treatment and better paying jobs brought hundreds of thousands of African Americans north.
Those left behind in the South found continued solace and fortitude in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, leading the way in continuing the fight for basic civil rights for all. Freedom songs sung in marches and jails spread to whites traveling from northern colleges to join in the struggle, spreading lyrics and ideas back north that have now become familiar to those visiting the National Mall and public squares across the country participating in democratic demonstrations of a range of popular issues.
maker
Mt. Zion Mission Baptist Church
ID Number
1986.0812.01
accession number
1986.0812
catalog number
1986.0812.01
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909. The organization created the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.Currently not on view
Description
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909. The organization created the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.
Location
Currently not on view
associated person
King, Jr., Martin Luther
referenced
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
ID Number
1979.0735.11
accession number
1979.0735
catalog number
1979.0735.11
In 1857, Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives became business partners and set out to produce popular, affordable decorative prints for American consumers.
Description
In 1857, Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives became business partners and set out to produce popular, affordable decorative prints for American consumers. In the 1880s, Currier & Ives produced the "Darktown Comics" series of color lithographs, which would become one of their best-selling lines. Each of these depicted African Americans as racist caricatures and ugly stereotypes, and presented scenes where the humor, such as it was, derived from their buffoonish antics and "putting on airs.” These color lithographs were primarily created by John Cameron (1828-1906) and Thomas Worth (1834-1917), two artists employed by Currier & Ives. They drew on a broad visual vocabulary of anti-black racist tropes that had developed over the 19th century, derogatory signifiers that would have been understood and shared by their popular audience, who created a demand for similar imagery in numerous other commercial and decorative objects of the time. Cameron and Worth often set hapless black figures in traditionally white roles, such as firefighting, and the ridiculous failures they depicted helped to reinforce entrenched racial and social hierarchies, as well as to perpetuate the notions of heroism and leadership as white male prerogatives in the period after Reconstruction. When Currier & Ives shut down operations in 1907, New York City printer Joseph Koehler purchased the lithographic stones of the "Darktown Comics" series from the firm and produced restrikes under his own name for several more years.
This color lithograph – “A Prize Squirt” – depicts a fire company (“Niagara”) engaged in a contest to throw water high enough to reach a liberty cap atop a pole. A group of spectators looks on and one man, dressed somewhat like Uncle Sam, holds a trophy, engraved “Prize Mug.” The fire pumper depicted is intentionally old-fashioned and shoddy, and the firefighters must stand on a board and sawhorses in order to operate it. It is paired with a second scene entitled “The Last Shake.” The print is a racist parody of the common practice of fire companies in American towns and cities to mark holidays with parades and contests, including pumping challenges. This version is a restrike produced by Joseph Koehler after 1907.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1907
publisher
Koehler, Joseph
copyright
Currier & Ives
ID Number
2005.0233.1092
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.1092
Diorama depicting the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, based on a painting by Edmund Havel, 1873. Made of wood and paper applied to plexiglass box with electrical low-voltage lights affixed to the side panels.
Description (Brief)

Diorama depicting the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, based on a painting by Edmund Havel, 1873. Made of wood and paper applied to plexiglass box with electrical low-voltage lights affixed to the side panels. Seven female figures and four male figures made of porcelain with cotton or synthetic lower torso. The diorama includes a grand piano and bench, two chairs, and a settee, all in miniature, made from painted wood and fabric. The women's clothing is made from silk taffeta and the men's clothing from wool. Made by Diedra Bell, Washington, D.C., assisted by Stephney Keyser, Falls Church, Virginia, 1994-1998.

From the nation’s beginning, Americans have grappled with who gets educated and who pays for education. Both public and private schools have relied on a combination of public and private funding. Disparities in wealth and political influence have affected Americans’ ability to support schools. As a result, educational philanthropy has reflected inequalities in the American economy and society. Giving through contributions of time and money have both created opportunities for students and increased inequalities among them.

Barred from schools for white children due to racist practices, African Americans in the late 1800s established and supported a wide variety of educational institutions of their own. In the 1870s the Fisk University Jubilee Singers began touring the United States and Europe to raise money for the African American school. Familiarizing white audiences with black spirituals, the group also advocated for African American rights and independence.

Date made
1994 - 1998
depicted
Fisk University Jubilee Singers
maker
Keyser, Stephney J.
visual artist
Havel, Edmund
maker
Keyser, Stephney J.
ID Number
1999.0174.01
accession number
1999.0174
catalog number
1999.0174.01
This lengthy ship’s manifest documents the cargo of schooner, LaFayette, which transported 83 enslaved men, women, and children from Alexandria, Virginia to Natchez, Mississippi via New Orleans.
Description
This lengthy ship’s manifest documents the cargo of schooner, LaFayette, which transported 83 enslaved men, women, and children from Alexandria, Virginia to Natchez, Mississippi via New Orleans. Operating out of Alexandria, Virginia, the manifest is from a well-known company, Franklin and Armfield. What makes this manifest so unusual and rare is the fact that listed on the document are the names, heights, ages, and complexions of the enslaved passengers as well as the names and residences of the shipper and consignees.
date made
1833
ID Number
2007.0093.01
accession number
2007.0093
catalog number
2007.0093.01

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