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.

Topic: Art

Stringbean

Nationally known by the 1950s, "Stringbean" David Akeman (1915-1973) was a country comedian and exceptional banjo player. He is credited with reviving interest in the banjo in bluegrass and country music.
Description
Nationally known by the 1950s, "Stringbean" David Akeman (1915-1973) was a country comedian and exceptional banjo player. He is credited with reviving interest in the banjo in bluegrass and country music. He made his first banjo from a shoebox and string, and later went on to play with Bill Monroe's Band. Uncle Dave Macon mentioned Stringbean in classic jokes and traditional tunes, and was among the first Opry members to join the cast of Hee Haw. Publicity photographs in the background of this picture include Jean Shepherd, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Stringbean himself, Bobby Lord, Bill Anderson, Flatt and Scruggs, the Browns, and the Four Guys.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1972
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.031
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.031

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale’s Tooth, Early 20th Century

On this highly polished and glossy tooth, an elegant coach-and-four drives from left to right. A crest on the coach suggests an upper class owner. The single coachman brandishes a long buggy whip, which curls over the back of the two near horses.
Description
On this highly polished and glossy tooth, an elegant coach-and-four drives from left to right. A crest on the coach suggests an upper class owner. The single coachman brandishes a long buggy whip, which curls over the back of the two near horses. Heads and tails held high, the spirited horses move at a fast trot.
The high shine, depth of carving, uniformity of black infilling and other features suggest the hand of a 20th century artist.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
DL.374498
catalog number
374498
accession number
136263

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid-late 19th Century

This classic example of scrimshaw has a portrait of a fashionable young woman pinpricked into the surface of a polished sperm whale’s tooth.
Description
This classic example of scrimshaw has a portrait of a fashionable young woman pinpricked into the surface of a polished sperm whale’s tooth. The artist’s inexperience is evident in the overuse of the pinpricking technique, whereby a magazine illustration is wetted and smoothed on the surface of a tooth and then pricked through to get the subject’s outline. Nearly every detail of this carving is guided by the original illustration, with nothing left to interpretation. As a result, the woman’s face has a deep, dark outline where the original picture was shaded. Her headband is decorated with tiny flowers and some portions of her hair and accessories are incomplete, giving an unfinished look to the artwork.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850 - 1900
ID Number
DL.374501
catalog number
374501
accession number
135263

Tootsies' Bartender

Bartender Wanda Lohman, known as "Miss Wanda," worked at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge from 1960 to 1984. The walls of Tootsie's became a kind of community scrapbook. Tootsie, like her patrons, was a fan of country music.
Description
Bartender Wanda Lohman, known as "Miss Wanda," worked at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge from 1960 to 1984. The walls of Tootsie's became a kind of community scrapbook. Tootsie, like her patrons, was a fan of country music. She collected autographs, posters, record albums, and photographs. Patrons, family, and friends contributed their comments and added photos.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1974
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.107
catalog number
2003.0169.107
accession number
2003.0169

Rosary

Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation.
Description
Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation. Dramatic changes in weather patterns have the potential to affect millions of people, as do warnings issued by the National Weather Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Robert Ricks, chief NWS forecaster on duty at the Slidell, Louisiana weather station the morning of August 28, studied the computer maps of Hurricane Katrina's movement across the Gulf of Mexico. At 10:11 that morning, he quickly composed an urgent and unambiguous weather alert, what became the most accurate prediction of Katrina's impact. "A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH . . ." it began. "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS . . . PERHAPS LONGER . . . ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL . . . ALL WOOD-FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED . . . WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS . . . NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED . . . LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED . . . "
To comfort him during his forecasting assignment that day, and in the chaotic days immediately after, Ricks carried this Catholic rosary given to him by his grandmother. He later donated it to the Smithsonian as a symbol of his own perilous journey through the arms of Hurricane Katrina.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
August - September 2005
user
Ricks, Robert
referenced
National Weather Service
ID Number
2006.0220.01
accession number
2006.0220
catalog number
2006.0220.01

Sperm Whale Tooth Napkin Ring, 20th Century

The lower diameter of an average-sized sperm whale tooth makes it a perfect candidate for a napkin ring.
Description
The lower diameter of an average-sized sperm whale tooth makes it a perfect candidate for a napkin ring. This example was sliced off the bottom of a tooth, hollowed out and then polished inside and out.
The upper side is carved with a Pacific Northwest Indian totem pole decorated with a vertical stack of four creatures. It stands at one corner of a low log walled precinct, to the right of which is a tree. The subject, uniform depth of the carving and overall style indicate a 20th century date.
Totem poles were carved tree trunks (usually Western cedar) smoothed and carved by several different native North American tribes in the Pacific Northwest (Canada and Washington coast).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
20th century
ID Number
DL.60.1726
catalog number
60.1726
accession number
200122

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, 20th Century

The scene on the obverse of this tooth might serve as a primer for sticking a whale. In the front center is a whaleboat with sail rigged up and four rowers with shipped oars.
Description
The scene on the obverse of this tooth might serve as a primer for sticking a whale. In the front center is a whaleboat with sail rigged up and four rowers with shipped oars. In the stern the boat steerer sits, and in the bow the harpooner stands with his arms in the air, ready to hurl his iron into the flesh of a whale. The detail in the freehand carving is so fine that the nails in the individual outer hull planks are visible, along with the sail's reefing points and sewn seams. To the left in the background, the mother ship is seen in the distance; the scene is bordered along the bottom edge by a laurel leaf vine.
The reverse is etched with a large, anatomically correct sperm whale; below it is a waving pennant inscribed "PAUL GANDON". There is no one named Gandon in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Whaling Crew List Database.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
20th century
ID Number
1978.0052.28
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.52.28

figure

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1850 - 1899
maker
Schimmel, Wilhelm
ID Number
CL.65.1091
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.1091

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century

On the obverse of this tooth, eight men in a rowboat are pulling offshore for a ship in the distance. One man, probably an officer or mate, is standing in the stern directing the crew to row; a sketchy American flag is flying at the bow.
Description
On the obverse of this tooth, eight men in a rowboat are pulling offshore for a ship in the distance. One man, probably an officer or mate, is standing in the stern directing the crew to row; a sketchy American flag is flying at the bow. Farther offshore, a fogbank is rolling in and obscuring the hulls of more ships offshore; only their upper sails are visible. On the far left, another ship is visible, but its upper masts and rig are missing. The absence of any pinholes in the composition indicates a freehand carving; the reverse side is polished but undecorated.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
DL.374476
catalog number
374476
accession number
136263

Scrimshaw Whale Tooth, mid 20th Century

This massive sperm whale tooth is deeply engraved on one side with an elaborately detailed scene of the ‘cutting in’ process on the port or left side of the whaleship John R. Manta.
Description
This massive sperm whale tooth is deeply engraved on one side with an elaborately detailed scene of the ‘cutting in’ process on the port or left side of the whaleship John R. Manta. The carving commemorates the last whaling voyage on a sailing ship out of New Bedford, MA in 1925; the schooner returned to its home port New Bedford with only 300 barrels of sperm oil. This tooth belonged to a writer who accompanied the Manta on this last voyage; his daughter donated it to the Smithsonian in 1976. It was carved by an artist with the initials “W.P.”; since none of the ship’s crew or officers had these initials, the tooth likely was carved after the voyage.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 20th century
ID Number
1980.0620.01
accession number
1980.0620
catalog number
1980.620.1

Billet Head

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
ID Number
CL.65.1122
accession number
256396
catalog number
65.1122

Camera-ready comic panel, entitled "Here's Mom".

"Here's Mom" was a series of comic panels created and drawn by Jud Isabel and distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate between 1961 and 1970. The comic featured the domestic trials of everyday mothers.
Description
"Here's Mom" was a series of comic panels created and drawn by Jud Isabel and distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate between 1961 and 1970. The comic featured the domestic trials of everyday mothers. In this panel, Mom comes home to find cupcakes and a mess in her kitchen, with her daughter baking. Written in blue ink beneath the picture, "Hi mom! Guess what I learned to make in school today!"
Location
Currently not on view
date made
08/22/1965
publisher
Tribune Printing Company
ID Number
GA.22349
catalog number
22349
accession number
277502

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century

This long, slender sperm whale tooth has a highly polished surface on all sides. However, only a single image is found on the top of its obverse, leaving nearly the entire tooth undecorated.Atop a footed stand rests a large bird, with its talons tightly gripping a round perch.
Description
This long, slender sperm whale tooth has a highly polished surface on all sides. However, only a single image is found on the top of its obverse, leaving nearly the entire tooth undecorated.
Atop a footed stand rests a large bird, with its talons tightly gripping a round perch. Its hooked beak identifies it as a raptor—probably a hawk. The drawing lacks any pinholes, indicating it is a freehand composition and the engraved lines are infilled with black pigment.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
1978.0052.17
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.52.17

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century

Patriotic subjects were very popular with scrimshaw artists. General George Washington is the main subject engraved on this sperm whale tooth. He is depicted in military uniform leaning against a large rock, with a sentry guarding a tent camp in the background.
Description
Patriotic subjects were very popular with scrimshaw artists. General George Washington is the main subject engraved on this sperm whale tooth. He is depicted in military uniform leaning against a large rock, with a sentry guarding a tent camp in the background. Overhead is an emblematic eagle crest with spread wings, complete with striped shield and a banner fluttering in his mouth. His left talon holds a bunch of arrows and the right holds olive branches. Oddly, the Washington scene lacks a single pinhole, indicating a freehand sketch by a confident artist. However, the crest above has very dense pinpricking throughout the composition, suggesting that a different, less experienced artist probably needed an illustration to guide his design. The reverse side is polished but undecorated.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
DL.024889
catalog number
024889
accession number
4362

Wall with Roy Acuff Poster

Often called the "King of Country Music." Roy Acuff had a career that spanned many facets of the music business, as a performer and as the first publisher of country sheet music. His first break came with his recording of "The Great Speckled Bird," in 1936.
Description
Often called the "King of Country Music." Roy Acuff had a career that spanned many facets of the music business, as a performer and as the first publisher of country sheet music. His first break came with his recording of "The Great Speckled Bird," in 1936. In 1937, he became a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry, and his relationship with the Opry and its fans would last the rest of his life.
Location
Currently not on view
negative
1972
print
2003
recording artist
Acuff, Roy
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.110
catalog number
2003.0169.110
accession number
2003.0169

Trotting Horse Weathervane

Depicting a trotting horse. Figure with a stylized tail and flowing mane. The metal has a body-sculptured effect. The metal support rod is attached between the front legs at the chest.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Depicting a trotting horse. Figure with a stylized tail and flowing mane. The metal has a body-sculptured effect. The metal support rod is attached between the front legs at the chest.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850-1900
ID Number
CL.65.0923
catalog number
65.923
accession number
261195
collector/donor number
T-15

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, 19th-20th Centuries

The obverse of this sperm whale tooth is filled with a freehand etching of a large whaling ship with all sails set moving from right to left. Below is carved the name "JOSH-HEWITT" in a pennant.
Description
The obverse of this sperm whale tooth is filled with a freehand etching of a large whaling ship with all sails set moving from right to left. Below is carved the name "JOSH-HEWITT" in a pennant. On the other side is a set piece of four whaling tools: a harpoon, a boat hook, two head spades and a boat spade, loosely bundled together vertically on their handles by a pennant marked "THE FLORIDA NEW BEDFORD/ SEP 1858 To OCT 1861."
Built at New York in 1821, this whaling ship named Florida (there were others as well) was already very old in the 1850s. Hailing from Fairhaven, MA (not New Bedford, on the other side of the Acushnet River) in 1858, this Florida did undertake a whaling voyage in the North Pacific from September 1858 to October 1861, collecting 750 barrels of sperm oil and 1660 barrels of whale oil. However, there is no one named Hewitt in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Whaling Crew List Database for this ship. The Florida was sold at San Francisco upon its arrival in October 1861, and its oil was shipped back east via another vessel. Florida was finally abandoned in 1871, after a remarkable 50-year career.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th-20th century
ID Number
1978.0052.31
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.0052.31

Tex Ritter and Fans

Henry Horenstein's photograph of this multigenerational crowd shows that fans of country music are not defined by age, but rather by choice of performers and styles of country music.
Description
Henry Horenstein's photograph of this multigenerational crowd shows that fans of country music are not defined by age, but rather by choice of performers and styles of country music. Although Tex Ritter (Woodward Maurice Ritter, 1905-1975) attained most of his fame as a Hollywood singing cowboy in the 1930s and 1940s, he still performed into the 1970s. Ritter won an Academy Award in 1953 for the best theme song, "High Noon," for the movie of the same name.
Location
Currently not on view
print
2003
maker
Horenstein, Henry
ID Number
2003.0169.063
accession number
2003.0169
catalog number
2003.0169.063

Kitty Wells

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

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century

Only the top of one side of this tooth has been smoothed and polished; the remainder is rough and ridged as it came out of the sperm whale’s jaw. The smoothed portion has a deeply engraved head and shoulder bust of a young Abraham Lincoln.
Description
Only the top of one side of this tooth has been smoothed and polished; the remainder is rough and ridged as it came out of the sperm whale’s jaw. The smoothed portion has a deeply engraved head and shoulder bust of a young Abraham Lincoln. The portrait is framed by a rope, which forms the handle for a fasces, or axe bound with sticks. This was a Roman symbol of authority and a common American symbol of federalism. The portrait is inscribed “A.LINCOLN” on the bottom left side of the portrait. The shading and depth of the engraving, together with the absence of any pin holes indicate the hand of an experienced scrimshander.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 19th century
ID Number
1978.0052.20
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.52.20

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, 19th-20th Centuries

Patriotic scenes were among the most popular for amateur scrimshaw artists in the 19th century American whaling fleet. On the front of this sperm whale tooth is a large, intricately detailed eagle with a shield in its midsection marked "USA".
Description
Patriotic scenes were among the most popular for amateur scrimshaw artists in the 19th century American whaling fleet. On the front of this sperm whale tooth is a large, intricately detailed eagle with a shield in its midsection marked "USA". His talons clutch a pennant inscribed "MASSACHUSETTS". Above is flying another pennant marked "BENJ GRAY 1857": likely the scrimshaw artist. The other side of the tooth is carved with a tall, slender urn marked "HOPE" on its lip, out of which large leaves are sprouting. The etching on this tooth is entirely freehand, attesting to a high level of artistic skill.
There are two Ben or Benjamin Grays in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Whaling Crew List Database, but their dates and ships do not match the date or ship on this tooth.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th-20th century
ID Number
1978.0052.24
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.0052.24

Buffalo Chase and Encampment

Bear's Heart, or Nock-ko-ist,drawn between 1875 and 1878 at Fort Marion, Florida"Buffalo Chase and Encampment"Collected by Richard Henry Pratt about 1878Colored pencil, ink, colored ink, and watercolorThis drawing shows an encampment, and men and women courting outside their tipi
Description
Bear's Heart, or Nock-ko-ist,
drawn between 1875 and 1878 at Fort Marion, Florida
"Buffalo Chase and Encampment"
Collected by Richard Henry Pratt about 1878
Colored pencil, ink, colored ink, and watercolor
This drawing shows an encampment, and men and women courting outside their tipis. The men are dressed in black and the women in blue and green. Above them, in another level of the story drawing, are warriors on a buffalo hunt. Three riders prepare to kill the buffalo, with bows drawn and ready.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1875-1878
original artist
Bear's Heart
ID Number
2008.0175.54
catalog number
2008.0175.054
accession number
2008.0175

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, 19th Century

Most scrimshaw images are engraved lines in the surface of a whales’ teeth that are then filled in with lamp black, leaving a one-dimensional effect. Many artists used a pin to pricked through a drawing which lay agianst the tooth.
Description
Most scrimshaw images are engraved lines in the surface of a whales’ teeth that are then filled in with lamp black, leaving a one-dimensional effect. Many artists used a pin to pricked through a drawing which lay agianst the tooth. The lines were then connected in a “fill in the dots” picture. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings.
By contrast, the artist of this eagle was a skilled engraver, who drew his bird freehand and then modeled the surface of the tooth to achieve depth. He also used cross hatching for the same effect. However, the bird may have been drawn from the artist’s memory or imagination, in that the head and body are scrawny, but the feathers are extremely accurate. The wings and talons are oversized, and the talon on the left is sprouting lightning bolts. More commonly on the American eagle, the left talon grasps leaves of peace and the right side talon holds arrows of war.
Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
It could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1978.0052.19
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.52.19

Scrimshaw Sperm Whale’s Tooth, Mid-19th Century

The pictures carved on whales’ teeth by scrimshaw artists commonly fall into a group of simple categories, like ships, whales, patriotic scenes, women, shorelines, and the like. Sometimes a tooth’s carving will tell a simple story about danger, loneliness, love or war.
Description
The pictures carved on whales’ teeth by scrimshaw artists commonly fall into a group of simple categories, like ships, whales, patriotic scenes, women, shorelines, and the like. Sometimes a tooth’s carving will tell a simple story about danger, loneliness, love or war. Other times, the tale that a tooth tells is lost in time, perhaps forever. This little tooth may be one of the latter. On the top of one side are two outlined flags: on the left is an American flag, and on the right is a flag with a large “M” on it. Both are waving in the wind. Below are the words “OUR COMPROMISE” in two lines. At the bottom is a small cannon on a truck, or carriage. The truck construction indicates that it is a land weapon rather than a ship armament. The depth of the gun etching is much deeper than the flags, perhaps indicating a different artist. Although it is polished and prepared for carving, the other side of the tooth is not decorated. The lack of a date or any other identifying factors makes it almost impossible to decipher the artist’s message to us from an earlier time. Was it a private message to a friend or lover, a political statement, a military event.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1978.0052.39
accession number
1978.0052
catalog number
1978.52.39

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