Art - Overview
The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.
"Art - Overview" showing 9 items.
Engraved woodblock of a "Navajo blanket"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of "Navaho blanket" was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published as Figure 52 (p.387) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Weavers” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0421
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0421
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Navajo Indian with silver ornaments"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Navajo Indian with silver ornaments" was prepared, after a photograph, by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published as Plate XX (p. 178) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Silversmiths” in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1880-81.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1883
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- block maker
- J. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0442
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0442
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Navajo blanket"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a "Navajo blanket" was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 53 (p.387) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Weavers” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- block maker
- W. T. & B.
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1180
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1180
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of "Weaving diamond-shaped diagonals"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Weaving diamond-shaped diagonals” was prepared, after a photograph, by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XXXV (p.380) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Weavers” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- block maker
- W. T. & B.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1359
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1359
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of "Bringing down the batten"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Bringing down the batten” was prepared, after a photograph, by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XXXVIII (p.390) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Weavers” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- Powell, John Wesley
- block maker
- A. P. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1365
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1365
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Navajo woman weaving a belt"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Navaho woman weaving a belt” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XXXVI (p.384) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Weavers” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- block maker
- A. P. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1366
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1366
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "Workshop of a Navajo Silversmith"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of the “Workshop of a Navajo Silversmith” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XVII (p.175) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Silversmiths” in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1880-81.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1883
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1428
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1428
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Dancer holding up the great plumed arrow"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock for “Dancer holding up the great plumed arrow” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published as Figure 54 (p.434) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “The Mountain Chant: a Navajo ceremony” in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1883-84.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1887
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- block maker
- A. P. J. & Co.
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0438
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0438
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Dancer 'swallowing' the great plumed arrow"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Dancer ‘swallowing’ the great plumed arrow” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 55 (p.434) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “The Mountain Chant: a Navajo ceremony” in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1883-84.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1887
- block maker
- A.P.J. & Co.
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1112
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1112
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center