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 1 items.
OL LAVEND
- Description (Brief)
- This bottle with its rounded belly, long neck, and round foot was used to store Oil of Lavender. The baked enamel decoration is similar to containers 1991.0664.0223 and 224. The label within the rounded cartouche reads "OL LAVEND" and is painted in black. The perimeter of the cartouche is embellished with a red crown at the top above a wheel and sword. Directly below is a blue medallion with the initials “CR,” standing for the shop Casper Ritter. The small black figure to the left of the blue medallion is a Moor, the symbol of the Moor Apothecary. Stylized acanthus leaves are painted yellow and white with red and blue flowers. The Deutches Apotheken Museum in Heidelberg, Germany, also has containers from the Moor Apothecary in Mainz.
- The flowers and leaves of the Lavender plant were used as an aromatic to keep clothes and linens smelling sweet and to keep insects away. It was also used for headache when combined with other herbs. (Freeman, p. 39–40)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0224
- collector/donor number
- SAP 81
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05372
- 1991.0664.0224
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center