Silk textile (Lamba)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 19 Mar 1899
name: label: Donor Name
content: President Grover Cleveland
notes: label: Notes
content: IDENTIFIED AS "PROBABLY IMERINA" BY MUSEUM STAFF. ENTERED IN ORIGINAL ACCESSION RECORD AS ONE OF TWO 'EMBOSSED LINEN TABLE COVERS' [which is incorrect -- these are neither "embossed" (nor embroidered), nor table covers, nor linen]. FROM CARD:" MADE OF THREE LONG STRIPS OF HAND-WOVEN SILK CLOTH WITH GEOMETRIC PATTERNS IN BRILLIANT ANILINE DYE COLORS. VERY FINE WORKMANSHIP"
label: Notes
content: This lamba is discussed at length in "Objects as Envoys: Cloth, Imagery, and Diplomacy in Madagascar", edited by Christine Mullen Kreamer and Sarah Fee, especially pages 103-106, and photos on p 96, 104, 105, and 110. From the chapter by Mary Jo Arnoldi (p 104): "The Malagasy make clear distinctions among their textile types and have an elaborate textile vocabulary." She says this lamba is a "lamba akotofahana", and she quotes Reverend J. Richardson's 1885 Malagasy-English dictionary for a definition: "a native made silk cloth on which designs are woven". This lamba is described as carrying "elaborate supplementary weft-float designs woven the length of each of three panels that were sewn together to make up the finished textile...[this one] features multicolored motifs... To finish the warp ends, [the weaver] used a decorative knotting technique that is found in many silk cloths of this period... [it is] woven from a vairety of [native] silk known as 'landikely'...(Borocera madagascariensis)" Both natural and aniline dyes were used.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Apr 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Madagascar, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Merina
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 021722
label: USNM Number
content: E165580-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Textile
physicalDescription: label: Unknown - Object
content: 177 cm
label: Unknown - Object
content: 255 cm