Tapa
date: label: Accession Date
content: 26 Oct 1874
label: Collection Date
content: 1838 to 1842
name: label: Collector
content: Major William Rich
label: Collector
content: United States Exploring Expedition
label: Donor Name
content: Prof Spencer F. Baird
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "TWO SHEETS SEWED TOGETHER, WITH TAPA CORD, WIDE STITCH, CONCEALED. MAMAKE TAPA. FIRST SHEET DARK BROWN, SECOND SHEET REDDISH BROWN, BROAD STRIPES, DARK. (THIS INFORMATION GIVEN BY K. P. EMORY, BISHOP MUSEUM, 6/24/41.) INVENTORIED 1975."
label: Notes
content: Watermarked Mamaki kapa with fine beater marks; two pieces stitched together with kapa strips using running stitch.
label: Notes
content: Dr. Adrienne Kaeppler identifies this as of Hawaiian manufacture.
label: Notes
content: The tapa is constructed from two large sheets which have been stitched together with twisted tapa thread along one edge about 4 cm in from the edge. The seam has been folded to the outside. One sheet is brown and the other a reddish brown. There are no visible joins in the sheets. Both are finely beaten with visible narrow parallel beater marks across the entire surface of both tapa sheets. Both are similarly embellished with alternating groups of wide and narrow stripes running parallel to the stitched edge and completely covering the surface of the tapa. The stripes are slightly darker in hue but of the same color as a the background. The stitched or top sides of both sheets have a narrow finished edge made during manufacture by folding the edge over on itself. The bottom edges are similarly finished. The sides appear cut except on the proper left side of the brown sheet. The tapa was likely made to serve as a kapa moe or sleeping tapa. Dr. Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology, examined the tapa, 9-11-2013, and said it has the hallmarks of Hawaiian manufacture because of its color and beater marks. The tapa was identified as mamaki tapa by K. P. Emory of the Bishop Museum in 1941. This tapa resembles a variety of Hawaiian tapa known as mamaki due to it having the following characteristics which are said to be typical of mamaki: thin parallel lined beater marks, coarser texture, dark brownish dye, and horizontal striped pattern. Research has been carried out by Funk (1979), Rose et al. (1988) and Scharff (1996). According to Scharff (1996) the mamaki is made from the Pipturus, most notably the Pipturus albidus species. Rose et al (1988, p. 26), noted that oxalic acid was found at a concentration of 1000 times more in mamaki tapa than in fresh mamaki, and suggested that the dark brown color arises from the tapa being immersed in taro mud. Scharff took fiber samples from both sheets of this tapa and identified both as mamaki (Pipturus) based on her SEM analysis (Scharff 1996 pp 10, 21).
label: Notes
content: Stored in Pod 4 oversize whole unit. Advance arrangements are needed for access.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Jul 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Hawaii (Hawaiʻi), United States, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 74A00057
label: USNM Number
content: E15096-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 239 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 279 cm