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. |
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Selected Objects |
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Buffalo Hide Painting of Saint Anthony of Padua
The man in this painting, holding an apparition of the baby Jesus, appears to be a saint. Known as Saint Anthony of Padua, the "Hammer of Heretics," he was celebrated ...
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Chest
Though this country was founded in part by European religious communities rebelling against an ornate and hierarchical Catholic faith to which they had been forced to adhere, this trunk reminds ...
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Don Garlits Top-fuel Dragster "Swamp Rat XXX"
Swamp Rat XXX is a drag racing car of the top-fuel class, designed, built and raced by Don Garlits of Ocala, Florida. Garlits, better known as "Big Daddy," is one ...
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Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark, an Old Testament story, appealed to 19th-century children as part of their Bible study. The animals also appeared in the form of games and toys. Prints of religious ...
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Mountain of the Holy Cross
After the Civil War the United States turned its full attention to exploration of the West. A number of geological survey teams, organized by the Department of the Interior, spent ...
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Page from the Koran
This page is one side of a double-sided sheet from a copy of the Koran, a collection of revelations to the Prophet Mohammed that forms the basis of the Islamic ...
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Prayer Book Bag
When traveling a long distance, one often must travel light. This small prayer bag, used to hold a Jewish prayer book, was the choice of one German immigrant. The drawstring ...
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Preacher Puppet
New England youth faced many choices and changes in the 1890s, and the itinerant minister who operated this set of puppets sought to guide them. Rural New England families had ...
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Shofar
The shofar, one of the earliest known musical instruments, is usually made from a ram's horn. Used in biblical times to signal important events, it is also blown on High ...
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Sunstone Capital
A radiant face rising out of a bank of clouds and a pair of hand-held trumpets adorn this limestone capital from a Mormon temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. It is one ...
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Tibetan Book, Direct Path to Enlightenment
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 ...
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Our Lady of Monserrat
Based on lore and church documents, this figure illustrates the Miracle of Hormigueros. In 1599, Our Lady of Montserrat appeared to Gerardo González, a farmer near Hormigueros in southwestern Puerto ...
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