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 5 items.
CIN JOVIS
- Description
- This square blown and molded glass jar has a flared circular collar with a wooden and cork lid. The container is decorated with a baked white enamel cartouche framed by stylized blue leaves and red and yellow flowers . It is marked "CIN JOVIS." According to Urdang, this bottle was made in the last third of the 18th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0200
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05348
- 1991.0664.0200.01
- 1991.0664.0200.02
- collector/donor number
- SAP 57
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
OL RUTHAE
- Description
- This blown glass urn-shaped drug jar has a long neck and applied foot. Containers of this shape were called "noennchen" or "little nuns". The circular baked enamel white label is surrounded by a blue border with a bow at the top. The label reads “OL RUTHAE” in black text. The jar would have contained Oil of Rue, which was oil from the common rue plant (also known as Herb-of-Grace) which was prescribed for its antimicrobial properties and as an abortifactant.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 18th-19th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0403
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05552
- collector/donor number
- SAP 264
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0403
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apothecary Jar
- Description (Brief)
- Cylindrical tin-glazed Apothecary jar with a straight wall and a flat shoulder. The container is divided into three sections depicting different religious scene. One section portrays Saint Jerome dressed in magnesium colored robes praying before a cross and human skull mounted on rocks. Behind him is a church. The second section Saint Jerome again? with angles peering down from the heavens. The saint in kneeling before a table covered with a green cloth. Behind him is a balustrade with a vase of flowers. The third section depicts Mary and Joseph walking with Jesus as a little boy. Each section is divided by yellow and blue vertical bands and green leaves. Above the shoulder are several bands of interconnecting scroll designs.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0524
- catalog number
- M-05736
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apothecary Jar, Albarello
- Description (Brief)
- Yellow, cobalt blue and green waisted drug jar. Oval medallion with a white robed saint is surrounded by foiliage and bands of geometric designs at the shoulders.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1600
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0547
- catalog number
- M-05759
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 471
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0547
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Jar Made by "Dave"
- Description
- This large alkaline-glazed stoneware jar was made in 1862 by David Drake, an enslaved black potter working on Lewis Miles’ plantation pottery in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. In a state that outlawed literacy among slaves, Dave defiantly proclaimed his ability to read and write by signing his name and sometimes inscribing poetry on the stoneware vessels he made.
- One of the most distinctive aspects of ante-bellum Edgefield was the presence of a large number of skilled black slaves working as potters. Edgefield was one of only two areas in the United States known to have relied heavily on enslaved labor to manufacture utilitarian stoneware in large-scale potteries. Edgefield potteries furnished the large local plantations with the vessels needed for the preparation and storage of food for the planters and for the thousands of slaves working as agricultural and skilled laborers.
- While some slaves performed unskilled jobs in the potteries—such as digging and preparing clay and loading kilns—most were “turners,” performing the highly skilled work of forming ware on a potter’s wheel. At least 40 enslaved potters and pottery laborers are known to have worked in potteries in Edgefield between about 1815 and 1880. Some scholars believe over a hundred more may some day be identified.
- David Drake is the only enslaved potter known to have signed and dated his work. He was educated by his first owner, stoneware maker and newspaper editor Abner Landrum, and may have worked at Landrum’s newspaper, the Edgefield Hive, as a typesetter. When Landrum left the Edgefield area in 1831, Dave was sold to Lewis Miles, another large-scale pottery owner.
- Dave was a master potter, regularly producing massive storage jars and jugs that required enormous skill and strength. About twenty surviving Dave pieces are inscribed with Dave’s original two line poems—wonderful and sometimes cryptic ruminations on topics as diverse as pots, love, money, spirituality, life as a slave, and the afterlife. The poems reflect Dave’s intelligence, creativity, and wit.
- The poem on this jar, “I made this jar all of cross, If you don[’]t repent you will be lost,” may be a reference to the Bible, Acts 2: 14-42, Peter’s speech at Pentecost in the temple of Herod at Jerusalem. This jar, the last known poem piece, emphasizes the importance of religion and the afterlife in the daily life of many slaves. John Michael Vlach highlights this jar in The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts, conjecturing that its “highly poignant verse” reflects "Dave’s combined feelings about slavery and religion.” On the obverse side, the jar is inscribed “May 3, 1862/ LM Dave.”
- date made
- 1862-05-03
- maker
- Dave
- ID Number
- 1996.0344.01
- catalog number
- 1996.0344.01
- accession number
- 1996.0344
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center