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The Salmon Basket & Cannery Label
This salmon basket from the land of the Tlingit and Yakutat people is a useful piece of art, woven from spruce root, grass, and maidenhair fern in a twined fashion, and originally made to carry...
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Moose Hair Embroidered Birchbark Trays: French, Native, or Both
The intricate detailing on these birchbark trays was the first thing that caught my eye. It is difficult to fathom the amount of labor and intensive effort it takes to embroider such complex designs...
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Investigating a Pipe Tomahawk
Pipe Tomahawk 45-15-1357 at the Penn Museum. Photo by Margaret Bruchac. Kayla Holmes with tomahawks. Photo by Margaret Bruchac. How does a tomahawk, as an object typically associated with violence,...
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Blackfeet Moccasins: A Gift to Charles Stephens
This object study focuses on two pairs of moccasins, similar in structure and style, collected in 1891 from Blackfeet (also called Blackfoot) artisans.[1] The moccasins have a closed-toe design, cloth...
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The Mysterious Beaded Collar
The provenance story of this “American Indian beaded collar” (object # 2000-16-1) begins with a mystery: it was made by an unknown artisan for an unknown purpose at an unknown time, likely in the 19th...
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Choctaw Beaded Sashes: Crossing Histories
In 1901, during the Wanamaker Pan-American Expedition, Penn Museum Curator Stewart Culin purchased a selection of Choctaw objects from Louisiana.[1] The collection included two elaborately beaded red...
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Tlingit Raven Rattle: Transformative Representations
Shark, Raven, Bird, Human. What does it mean to find these life forms intermingled within a singular piece, in the shape of a rattle? In Tlingit society, the interactions among these beings and the...
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Children Amongst the Caribou: Clothes for a Young Innu
The Penn Museum holds around 400 objects attributed to the “Naskapi” people and acquired by Frank Speck in 1930-1931.[1] The diverse collection includes games, charms, toys, hunting tools, snowshoes,...
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We Dig Love: The Daily Dig, Valentine’s Edition
Is there any experience more powerful than falling in love? Most people would be hard-pressed to name an example. Love binds us together—it brings us joy and comfort, and sometimes sadness; it can...
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Gods of Rock
Forget about Freddy Mercury. Forget about Chuck Berry. In the good old days, long before the days of the idol on the stage, humanity looked to the natural world for help in satisfying their cravings...
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