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 8 items.
Tibetan Book, Direct Path to Enlightenment
- Description
- This text of the collected works of Rje Tsong-kha-pa, a well-loved Tibetan scholar, includes illustrations of Buddha Sakyamuni and Buddha Maitreya on the first page. As it is a commentary on a famous work by Asanga (4th century CE) on Bodhisattva ethics, Asanga and the author Rje Tsong-kha-pa are pictured on the next page to show the lineage through which this particular teaching evolved. Both the illustrations and the text are printed from woodblocks. The loose pages are contained between two wooden boards.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Rje Tsong-kha-pa
- ID Number
- GA*08092
- catalog number
- 08092
- accession number
- 29359
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Codex Telleriano-Remensis
- Description
- The civilizations of pre-Hispanic Mexico recorded their histories, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge in books called codices. Codices are folded pieces of hide or bark that depict both mundane and spiritual scenes with images, symbols, and numbers. Scribes and painters busily recorded daily affairs, filling libraries and temples with books throughout Mexico and Central America. The majority of these illustrated books did not survive the Spanish conquest. But indigenous scribes trained by Spanish missionaries continued writing. While these colonial-era texts were still filled with pictures, over time they referenced the visual language of older Mexican and Maya books less and less. These new books about community histories (including land titles) and secret religious traditions were sometimes bilingual, combining Spanish with either Náhautl (the common language of central Mexico) or a Mayan language, both of which were now written with the Latin alphabet. This image is from an Italian reproduction of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, a manuscript co-written by Spanish friar Pedro de los Ríos about 1550. It documents the religious beliefs, calendar system, traditions, and history of the Tolteca-Chichimeca culture of Central Mexico. Joseph Florimond, Duc de Loubat, (1837–1921) was an American philanthropist who published a series of reproductions of pre-Hispanic and colonial-era Mexican manuscripts, including the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. The Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History houses several reproductions of Mesoamerican codices published for study by French, German, and Italian scholars at the turn of the 20th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1900
- Associated Date
- 1900
- publisher
- Duc de Loubat
- ID Number
- 2006.0226.37
- catalog number
- 09449
- 2006.0226.37
- accession number
- 2006.0226
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The "Jefferson Bible," The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, 1820
- Description
- Around 1820 Thomas Jefferson cut and pasted verses from the New Testament to create this work, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Extracted textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French, & English. His purpose was to distill Jesus' ethical teachings from accounts of miracles and other elements that he considered distortions of Jesus' history and thought. Jefferson was a Deist--he believed in a Creator but did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. He thought he could distinguish between Jesus' true message and the apostles' later additions or misunderstandings by using reason as a guide.
- Jefferson created this book for his own reading and reflection. He used texts in four different languages and placed them side-by-side so that he could compare which version seemed to him to express Jesus's moral views most clearly. He believed that those views provided "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."
- Jefferson made no plans to publish this work. He knew that his beliefs were unorthodox and that they offended both religious authorities and political opponents. He considered his own and others' religious beliefs to be a matter of private conscience and thought they should not be subjected to public scrutiny or governmental regulation. "I not only write nothing on religion, but rarely permit myself to speak on it," he told a friend.
- The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth descended in Jefferson's family until late in the 19th century, when it came to the National Museum. The U.S. Congress first provided for the publication of the book in 1904. Since then, many editions have appeared in print. Some of them carry a title that Jefferson himself never used: "The Jefferson Bible"
- Location
- Currently on loan
- Date made
- ca 1820
- owner
- Jefferson, Thomas
- maker
- Jefferson, Thomas
- ID Number
- PL*158231
- catalog number
- 158231
- accession number
- 147182
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Song and Service Book for Ship and Field, Army and Navy
- Description
- Physical Description
- Song and Service Book for Ship and Field, Army and Navy, edited by Ivan Loveridge Bennett. Gilt title on maroon boards, 192 pp.
- General History
- The Song and Service Book for Ship and Field, Army and Navy, edited by Ivan Loveridge Bennett, features prayers, hymns, and patriotic songs used in various military ceremonies and religious services.
- date made
- 1942
- printer
- U.S. Government Printing Office
- ID Number
- 1982.0372.01
- accession number
- 1982.0372
- catalog number
- 1982.0372.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Jewish Prayer Book
- Description
- Physical Description
- Abridged Prayer Book for Jews in the Armed Forces of the United States, in drab green boards, 360 pp.
- Specific History
- This prayer book was owned by Sergeant Jules Herstein. He listed his military service on the inside back cover. He served five years from his induction in June 1940 until his discharge on December 5, 1945.
- associated dates
- 1940-06-01-1945-12-05
- user
- Herstein, Sergeant Jules
- ID Number
- 1993.0505.01
- catalog number
- 1993.0505.01
- accession number
- 1993.0505
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prayer Book
- Description
- Physical Description
- Bound printed paper.
- Specific History
- The Army and Navy Prayer of the Confederate States, printed in Richmond in 1865.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1865
- associated date
- 1861 - 1862
- ID Number
- AF*1860 [dup1]
- catalog number
- 1860
- accession number
- 17461
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
New Testament
- Description
- Physical Description
- Print on paper; bound in leather.
- Specific History
- New Testament owned by James H. Stetson, who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.
- General History
- The Battle of Gettysburg was a critical turning point in the American Civil War. During the first three days of July 1863, over 172,000 men and 634 cannons were positioned in an area encompassing 25 square miles. An estimated 569 tons of ammunition were expended and, when the battle had ended, the losses toped 51,000 in dead and wounded soldiers on both sides. While the Confederate army retreated after Gettysburg, the war would drag on another two years. It would be the most costly battle ever fought on U.S. soil. The battle was commemorated by Abraham Lincoln’s legendary address. Lincoln stated: “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” The world has remembered both the battle and Lincoln’s eloquent words.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1852
- user
- Stetson, James H.
- publisher
- American Bible Society
- ID Number
- AF*77318M
- catalog number
- 77318M
- accession number
- 307583
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Religion (series title), circa 1728-1950
- Summary
- Consists primarily of books, periodicals, publications, programs, leaflets, announcements, invitations, reports, circulars, letters, cards, photographs, engravings and illustrations relating to religious education, religious organizations and the dissemination of a great variety of religious viewpoints. Includes a substantial amount of colorful printed material, especially in card form. The bulk of the material dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Cite as
- Religion, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box ##, folder ###, digital file number ####
- Date
- 1728
- 1950
- circa 1728-1950
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH