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 27 items.
Page 1 of 3
Noah's Ark
- Description
- 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 scenes and other uplifting subjects were recommended as encouraging moral improvement, especially for the benefit of children. Currier and Ives published half-a-dozen different versions of Noah's Ark in several sizes. The firm issued hundreds of religious prints featuring Christian subjects for both Catholic and Protestant devotions. A number of these images were produced with titles in Spanish and French for immigrants and for foreign markets.
- The firm of Currier and Ives was an important publisher of American lithographs. Nathaniel Currier produced his first prints in the 1830s and, after 1857 with his partner James M. Ives, enjoyed great success publishing what the firm advertised as "cheap, popular pictures for the people." Currier and Ives produced more than 7,000 titles over nearly eight decades, and their name has become synonymous with the 19th-century American popular print.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- n.d.
- referenced
- Noah
- publisher
- Currier and Ives
- ID Number
- GA*24050
- catalog number
- 24050
- accession number
- 219034
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Oath of Vargas
- Description
- Paul Rajon’s print of Le Serment de Vargas is made after a watercolor of the subject by Louis Gallait (1810–1887), not from the oil painting that is now in the Wallace Collection in London. Juan de Vargas is swearing an oath before the Duke of Alva, who was a governor of the Netherlands in the 16th century during the long struggle by the Dutch for independence from Spain, achieved at last in 1648. He pursued a bloody campaign against the Dutch Protestants. Louis Gallait was a Belgian painter of history, portraits, and genre.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 19th century
- original artist
- Gallait, Louis
- graphic artist
- Rajon, Paul-Adolphe
- printer
- Salmon, A.
- publisher
- Gazette des Beaux-Arts
- ID Number
- GA*14912
- catalog number
- 14912
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Boutique Pharmaceutique
- Description
- An engraving by C. Le. Roy of a French apothecary dated 1637. This is the front-piece to the book "Boutique Pharmaceutique ou Antidotaire." The book was published by Nicolas Gay in Lyon in a single bound along with "Les Oeuvres Pharmaceutiques " by Jean de Renou in 1638.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1637
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0060
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-06253
- collector/donor number
- SAP 946
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tire du Cabinet de M. le Brun
- Description
- Etching by Louis Claude Le Grand in 1778, of the interioir of an alchemists workshop. The image is a copy from a series of paintings by Thomas Wyck. Wyck (1616-1677), painted two pieces both titled "The Alchemist" at Ham House.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1778
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0063
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-06262
- collector/donor number
- SAP 955
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Boutique Pharmaceutique
- Description (Brief)
- This print was created around 1690, and depicts a French drug store of the period.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1690
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.1340
- collector/donor number
- SAP 947
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.1340
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Saint Receiving Monk's Habit
- Description
- Abbé Jean-Claude-Richard de Saint-Non made this aquatint from a drawing by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) of an altarpiece by Guercino in the church of San Gregorio in Bologna, Italy. While visiting Rome, Saint-Non invited Fragonard, then at the French Academy in Rome, to accompany him on a tour of northern Italy to visit sites of historic and artistic interest. Fragonard made more than 300 sketches, some of which Saint-Non used as a basis for prints that were issued in Paris between 1770 and 1774.
- Saint-Non, a wealthy amateur etcher assisted by Jean-Baptiste Delafosse, a professional printmaker, invented a successful aquatint process in 1765. In this process, the artist dusts rosin powder onto a copper plate, which is heated to adhere the rosin. The plate is then etched in acid to create a rough surface that captures the ink to provide tonal areas in the print.
- The painting by Guercino (1591–1666) shows Saint William dressed in armor putting on a monk’s habit before Saint Benedict of Aniane. Saint William, formerly the Duke of Aquitaine, had fought bravely against Moorish invaders in Spain and France, but in 806 he retired from the world to become a monk in the monastery he had founded.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1772
- original artist
- Fragonard, Jean-Honoré
- graphic artist
- Saint-Non, Jean Claude Richard de
- original artist
- Guercino, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri
- ID Number
- GA*14830
- catalog number
- 14830
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
La Malinche
- Description
- La Malinche, the title of this lithograph, was the indigenous woman who translated for Cortés between Maya, Náhuatl, and Spanish during his first years in Mexico. Considered either as a traitor or a founding mother by some Mexicans, La Malinche was Cortés's lover and the mother of his favorite son Martín. She and Moctezuma are also central figures in the Matachines dances that are performed in Mexico and New Mexico. Originally commemorating the expulsion of the Moors from southern Spain in 1492, the dance was brought to Mexico where it was treated as a means for Christianizing native peoples. The historical figure of La Malinche, known in Spanish by the name Doña Marina, is also credited for playing an almost miraculous role in the early evangelization of central Mexico. This print, made by Jean Charlot in the 1933, shows a young girl in the role of La Malinche, holding a rattle or toy in one hand, and a sword in the other. Jean Charlot, a French-born artist, lived and studied in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. He depicted stylized scenes from the daily life of Mexican workers, particularly indigenous women.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1933
- graphic artist
- Charlot, Jean
- ID Number
- GA*23401
- catalog number
- 23401
- accession number
- 299563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Cholera Prevention Man
- Description
- Ink and water color etching of Cholera Prevention Man dressed in a large blue overcoat, a clay pipe in one hand and a mask over his face. He is standing in a doorway surrounded by boxes containing herbs. Behind him is the ghostly apparition of cholera. The translation of the inscription is "The well stocked small house ... "
- Location
- Currently not on view
- artist
- Wundet
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0013
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 967
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Melanie Hahnemann
- Description
- Portrait of Melanie Hahnemann, the second wife of Samuel Hahnemann the founder of Homeopathy.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted
- Hahnemann, Melanie
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0026
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 939
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Het Committe Van Algemeen Welzyn
- Description
- Though the title is in Dutch, the writing on the bottles are in French and reference the French reign of terror. The cartoon is one of a series in the book "Hollandia Regenerata" by David Hess (1771-1843), published in 1797. The images satirize the Batavian Repblic and the French relationship with the Dutch.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1800
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0042
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-06266
- collector/donor number
- SAP 959
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Next Page