Cultures & Communities - Overview
Furniture, cooking wares, clothing, works of art, and many other kinds of artifacts are part of what knit people into communities and cultures. The Museum’s collections feature artifacts from European Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, African Americans, Gypsies, Jews, and Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The objects range from ceramic face jugs made by enslaved African Americans in South Carolina to graduation robes and wedding gowns. The holdings also include artifacts associated with education, such as teaching equipment, textbooks, and two complete schoolrooms. Uniforms, insignia, and other objects represent a wide variety of civic and voluntary organizations, including youth and fraternal groups, scouting, police forces, and firefighters.
"Cultures & Communities - Overview" showing 55 items.
Page 3 of 6
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 a "Scalloped shell disk"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Scalloped shell disk” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate LIV (p.274) in an article by William Henry Holmes (18461933) entitled “Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans” in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1880-81. The disk was found in Nashville, Tennessee by Major John Wesley Powell. In a footnote to his article, Holmes identifies “Kate C. Osgood” as an accompanying artist on this expedition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1883
- author
- Holmes, William Henry
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1274
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1274
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Vase of unusual shape"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Vase of unusual shape” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 211 (p.144) in an article by William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) entitled “Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui, Colombia” in the Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian,1884-85.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1888
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Holmes, William Henry
- block maker
- J. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1289
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1289
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "Parsee Towers of Silence (interior)"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of the “Parsee Towers of Silence (interior).” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 3 on page 104 in an article by H.C. Yarrow (1871-1876) entitled “Mortuary Customs of North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80. Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) engraved the image.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Yarrow, Harry Crecy
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1356
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1356
- 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 "Haida totem post"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Haida totem post” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 24 (p.68) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Pictographs of the North American Indians: a preliminary paper” in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1882-83.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1886
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- block maker
- J. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1509
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1509
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Canoe burial"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Canoe Burial” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 23 on page 171 in an article by H.C. Yarrow (1871-1876) entitled “Mortuary Customs of North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Yarrow, Harry Crecy
- block maker
- Grottenthaler, V.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1510
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1510
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center