Religion

One hallmark of the American experience captured in the Museum's collections is the nation's broad diversity of religious faiths. Artifacts range from Thomas Jefferson's Bible to a huge "Sunstone" sculpture carved for a Mormon temple in Illinois in 1844 to a household shrine from the home of a Pueblo Indian in the 1990s. Furniture, musical instruments, clothing, cooking ware, and thousands of prints and figures in the collections have all played roles in the religious lives of Americans. The most comprehensive collections include artifacts from Jewish and Christian European Americans, Catholic Latinos, Protestant Arab Americans, Buddhist and Christian Asian Pacific Americans, and Protestant African Americans. One notable group is the Vidal Collection of carved figures known as santos and other folk religious material from the practice of Santeria in Puerto Rico.

Gothic-style, beaker-shaped bronze mortar with an applied square handle and three vertical ribs. The ribs extend from a horizontal rib just below the neck to a horizontal rib just above the base of the vessel.
Description
Gothic-style, beaker-shaped bronze mortar with an applied square handle and three vertical ribs. The ribs extend from a horizontal rib just below the neck to a horizontal rib just above the base of the vessel. Urdang believed this mortar to be of Germanic origin of the late 15th century.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1991.0664.0092
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05645
collector/donor number
SAP 357
Wide mouth mortar with two dolphin handles applied at the waist. The body of the mortar has two bands of rosettes, leaves, vines and the profile of a mans face. The brass mortar has rounded ends. Urdang attributes this mortar to 17th century France.Currently not on view
Description
Wide mouth mortar with two dolphin handles applied at the waist. The body of the mortar has two bands of rosettes, leaves, vines and the profile of a mans face. The brass mortar has rounded ends. Urdang attributes this mortar to 17th century France.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1991.0664.0112.01
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05665.01
collector/donor number
SAP 377
catalog number
1991.0664.0112.01
Cast short squat mortar with a flared rim decorated with dots. The body of the mortar has full length figures separated by fish, busts, fleur-de-lis, and flowers.Urdang attributes the mortar to 16th century France and the bust to the French King Henry IV.Currently not on view
Description
Cast short squat mortar with a flared rim decorated with dots. The body of the mortar has full length figures separated by fish, busts, fleur-de-lis, and flowers.
Urdang attributes the mortar to 16th century France and the bust to the French King Henry IV.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1991.0664.0111
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05664
collector/donor number
SAP 376
catalog number
1991.0664.0111
Beaker-shaped mortar with a flaring mouth has five buttress-like ribs alternating between oval medallions decorated with a woman's face. The exterior portion of the flared mouth has a band of stylized stars.
Description
Beaker-shaped mortar with a flaring mouth has five buttress-like ribs alternating between oval medallions decorated with a woman's face. The exterior portion of the flared mouth has a band of stylized stars. The pestle has a T-shaped handle.
Urdang catalogued this mortar as Italian. Yet in a hand written note found in the mortar Dr. Kisel suggests the mortar is Spanish. Wittop Koning also thought the mortar to be Spanish.
Interestingly a partial round blue and white paper label glued to the interior of the mortar is marked (Printed and hand written) "VILLE DE .../M A. Ritten.../ notaire/ a Strasbourg/ I/I EXPOSITION DR DINANDE"
The material that the mortar is made from has a silver-pewter cast typical. The pestle has golden tone and is probably not original to the mortar.
Medieval Dinant (also spelled Dinand) and Bouvignes specialized in metalwork, producing finely cast and finished objects in a silvery brass alloy, called dinanderie Their metal ware was exported throughout Western Europe and England.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1991.0664.0109
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05662
collector/donor number
SAP 374
White marble mortar has four carved faces wearing laurel wreaths on their heads serves as handles. The top of the rim has an egg and dart border.
Description
White marble mortar has four carved faces wearing laurel wreaths on their heads serves as handles. The top of the rim has an egg and dart border. The body of the mortar is decorated with carvings of Pegasus and a rider, the profile of a man wearing a toga and lauel wreath on his head, a seated woman wearing a toga and holding a sphere, a second horse with a fishes tail. The top of the rim is marked "VNITA FORTIO VIRITUS"
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1991.0664.0143
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05696
collector/donor number
SAP 408
Cast mortar with two low relief ornamental bands of foliate scrollwork and two applied dolphin handles in the center of the body.
Description
Cast mortar with two low relief ornamental bands of foliate scrollwork and two applied dolphin handles in the center of the body. The rim is marked "LOF GODT VAN AL Ao 1609" which means Prasie God Above All.
Wittop Koning attributed this mortar to the Dutch trade city of Deventer on the river IJssel.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1609
ID Number
1991.0664.0118
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-05671
collector/donor number
383
catalog number
1991.0664.0118

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