Religion - Overview
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.
"Religion - Overview" showing 277 items.
Page 1 of 28
CIN JOVIS
- Description
- This square blown and molded glass jar has a flared circular collar with a wooden and cork lid. The container is decorated with a baked white enamel cartouche framed by stylized blue leaves and red and yellow flowers . It is marked "CIN JOVIS." According to Urdang, this bottle was made in the last third of the 18th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0200
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05348
- 1991.0664.0200.01
- 1991.0664.0200.02
- collector/donor number
- SAP 57
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Boutique Pharmaceutique
- Description
- An engraving by C. Le. Roy of a French apothecary dated 1637. This is the front-piece to the book "Boutique Pharmaceutique ou Antidotaire." The book was published by Nicolas Gay in Lyon in a single bound along with "Les Oeuvres Pharmaceutiques " by Jean de Renou in 1638.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1637
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0060
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-06253
- collector/donor number
- SAP 946
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tire du Cabinet de M. le Brun
- Description
- Etching by Louis Claude Le Grand in 1778, of the interioir of an alchemists workshop. The image is a copy from a series of paintings by Thomas Wyck. Wyck (1616-1677), painted two pieces both titled "The Alchemist" at Ham House.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1778
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0063
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-06262
- collector/donor number
- SAP 955
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mortar
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mortar and Pestle
- 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
- 374
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mortar
- 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-05664.01
- collector/donor number
- 376
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mortar
- 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
- 408
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
BALS MECH
- Description
- This blown and molded bottle has a skinny neck and a flared lip. The bottle has a baked enamel label framed by a Baroque style blue and yellow cartouche. The label reads “BALS MECH” in black text, with the first initial of each word in red. This bottle would have contained the Balsam of Mecca (or Balm of Gilead), a viscous liquid derived from the tree Balsamodendron opobalsamum. Real balsam of Mecca came from the former Ottoman Empire and was scarce, and boiled balsam leaves were often substituted. The balsam of Mecca was used as an antiseptic, stimulant, and vulnerary.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0303
- catalog number
- M-05452
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 161
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0303
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prescription Label, Apotheke in Werden
- Description (Brief)
- The Bristol-Myers Squibb Collection has over two hundred early prescription labels from dozens of apothecaries across Germany and Austria. Early labels were plain and without adornment. Later embellishments included decorative borders, images of animals such as stags, lions, or elephants associated with the name of the apothecary. One series of labels depicts the monastery in Carlsruhe, Germany.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.1099
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.1099
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prescription Label, Apotheke in Graefrath
- Description (Brief)
- The Bristol-Myers Squibb Collection has over two hundred early prescription labels from dozens of apothecaries across Germany and Austria. Early labels were plain and without adornment. Later embellishments included decorative borders, images of animals such as stags, lions, or elephants associated with the name of the apothecary.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.1100
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.1100
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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