Religion

Page from the Koran

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.

Date: 1890s

Mormon Ceremonial Apron

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800 - 1890
ID Number
CL.151442
catalog number
151442
accession number
023481

Crown

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1899
ID Number
CL.201487b
accession number
35201
catalog number
201487b

Crown

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1899
ID Number
CL.201487a
accession number
35201
catalog number
201487a

Little Catholic Child's Prayer Book, The

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1891
associated date
1892-06-22
ID Number
1990.0181.098
catalog number
1990.0181.098
accession number
1990.0181

The Holy Bible

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1880 - 1890
ID Number
ZZ.RSN82667U02

Shakespeare Country

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890s
maker
Williams, James Leon
ID Number
2012.0203.0122
accession number
2012.0203
catalog number
2012.0203.0122

Avignon from across the river

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ID Number
2012.0203.0090
accession number
2012.0203
catalog number
2012.0203.0090

Exposition Building, St. Charles Street

unpaved dirt street at center; white picket fence at left with small palm trees lining inside of fence; three level stone building with ornate facade next to picket fence, two men in front of entryway in uniform; smaller structures line street into background; large cross suspend
Description (Brief)
unpaved dirt street at center; white picket fence at left with small palm trees lining inside of fence; three level stone building with ornate facade next to picket fence, two men in front of entryway in uniform; smaller structures line street into background; large cross suspended over street in center; horse drawn carriages on street; photographer Theodore Lilienthal
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1854-1894
maker
Lilienthal, Theodore
ID Number
2012.3033.0056
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.0056

View of Villeneuve les Avignon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ID Number
2012.0203.0092
accession number
2012.0203
catalog number
2012.0203.0092

Old stone walls of Avignon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ID Number
2012.0203.0091
accession number
2012.0203
catalog number
2012.0203.0091

scroll, bible study device

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1896
ID Number
1994.0164.01
catalog number
1994.0164.01
accession number
1994.0164

1890 - 1893 Presbyterian Ladies Society Autograph Banner

This banner is one of two made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the Ladies Society of the First Presbyterian Church, New York City, as a fundraising project.
Description
This banner is one of two made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the Ladies Society of the First Presbyterian Church, New York City, as a fundraising project. The donor, Emilie Noakes Manley, referred to them as “Autograph Quilts” as they contain many signatures of prominent political personages of the period.
The banners belonged to her husband’s grandmother, Margaret Clarke Goodall Bradley, and were donated in her memory. According to family information, this banner was raffled as a fund raiser, possibly for an 1893 addition to the church by the firm McKim, Mead & White. Although Margaret Bradley did not win the raffle, the banner was presented to her because of “her efforts for the projects.”
This banner has a black satin ground with an appliquéd American flag made of red and white satin with a blue and white printed field of stars. Inked signatures of Benjamin Harrison (president 1889-1893) and his cabinet are on the flag. Near the flag are the embroidered words, "Liberty Union E pluribus Unum." In the center of the banner is an appliquéd blue circle embroidered with white stars surrounded by 44 red and white rays representing the number of states in the early 1890s. The rays are embroidered, following the lines of the original signatures, with the names of state governors, including those of Idaho and Wyoming both of which joined the Union in 1890.
The patriotic center is enhanced with appliquéd and embroidered flags of 48 nations. The embroidered insignia of 86 G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) posts or units are on a 10-inch black satin border. Between two of the G.A.R. insignia is an embroidered Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, and the inscription “BROOKLYN BRIDGE.” Across the top are 42 thin metal rings, an indication that it was meant to be hung. It is lined with light blue-green silk.
The Grand Army of the Republic was founded in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866 by Benjamin F. Stephenson. Membership was limited to honorably discharged veterans of the Union Army, Navy, or Marine Corps who had served between April 12, 1861, and April 9, 1865. Its peak membership was at more than 400,000 in 1890, about the time this banner was made. It lobbied Congress to establish veterans' pensions, supported voting rights for black veterans, and supported Republican political candidates. The organization ended in 1956 with the death of the last member to have served in the Civil War.
The donor recalled in a letter that she remembered hearing that the banner was “a money-making project, and all the ladies of the church participated in the assembling of the ‘Autograph-Swatches’ and the stitching and embroidery. The signatures on the flags were probably members and friends of the congregation (and possibly charged a small fee for the privilege) and when the quilts were completed they were raffled off.”
Margaret J. Clarke was born December 1858 to John and Matilda McKinney Clarke in New York City. Her parents were born in Ireland. She married Edward F. Goodall on September 18, 1877. He was killed by a train in 1880 and she married Samuel Bradley on February 25, 1885. She died November 21, 1929, in New York.
Margaret's daughter Louise, from her first marriage, married John Gordon Noakes. Their son, Donald Gordon Noakes, married Emilie, the donor. He died in 1948 and Emilie later married John Manley. In 1979 she gave the quilts to the National Museum in honor of the family and Margaret Clarke Goodall Bradley. Another granddaughter, Marjorie Blampied, wrote that the quilts “. . . most certainly are where they belong . . . where they will be treasured and appreciated.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890-1893
maker
unknown
ID Number
1979.1019.01
catalog number
1979.1019.01
accession number
1979.1019

Ukrainian Immigrant's Songbook

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca. 1890
date made
1899
ID Number
1982.0219.01
accession number
1982.0219
catalog number
1982.0219.01
1982.0219.01

“At a Georgia Camp Meeting”

This sheet music for the song "At a Georgia Camp Meeting," was written and composed by Kerry Mills and published by F.A. Mills in New York, New York in 1897.
Description
This sheet music for the song "At a Georgia Camp Meeting," was written and composed by Kerry Mills and published by F.A. Mills in New York, New York in 1897. The cover proclaims the song “a characteristic march which can be used effectively as a two-step, polka, or cake walk,” and shows images of blacks having a dignified party. The cake walk was often the last song at a dance and the best dancing couple was awarded a cake (the origin of the phrase “taking the cake”).
Location
Currently not on view
publishing date
1897
composer
Mills, Kerry
user
Woodside, Lura
publisher
F. A. Mills
ID Number
1979.1154.18
accession number
1979.1154
catalog number
1979.1154.18

church pew

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890s
Associated Name
Robeson, Paul
ID Number
1999.0127.01
accession number
1999.0172
catalog number
1999.0172.01

Jesus Our Love

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1893-01-28
ID Number
1990.0181.099
catalog number
1990.0181.099
accession number
1990.0181

bible study device

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1896
ID Number
1994.0164.02
catalog number
1994.0164.02
accession number
1994.0164

1850 - 1890 Mary Matthews Album Quilt

Album quilt made by friends and family for Mary Matthews to take with her on her sojourn as a missionary and teacher in Macedonia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The quilt consists of 25 blocks (approx.
Description
Album quilt made by friends and family for Mary Matthews to take with her on her sojourn as a missionary and teacher in Macedonia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The quilt consists of 25 blocks (approx. 12” x 13”) with pink sashing (2 ¾” wide) and pink and white border (1”, 1”, and 1 ¼” wide). The pieced and appliqued blocks, filling, and lining are all cotton. The blocks are mainly variations on patterns found on many album quilts of the period. The quilt was assembled for Mary Louisa Matthews who in 1888 went to Monastir (Bitola) Macedonia as a missionary, teaching at American School for Girls. Each block is inscribed with the name of a family member or friend. A few have religious inscriptions or poetry. One particular block is unusual, an appliqued Pythagorean Theorem.
date made
1850 - 1890
maker
unknown
ID Number
2019.0246.01
accession number
2019.0246
catalog number
2019.0246.01

Cross

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1875 - 1899
ID Number
CL.280129.04
accession number
280129
catalog number
280129.04

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.