Bark Cloth, Uncolored
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1858
label: Collection Date
content: 1838 to 1842
name: label: Donor Name
content: United States Exploring Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: Peale catalogue identifies # 1457 - 1464: "Cloth made of bark, preparatory to being printed."
label: Notes
content: Long narrow tapa, appears to be complete. Varies in width along its length. Manufactured from beaten inner bark, most probably of paper mulberry. Fine parallel beater marks are visible. Tapa appears to be at least two layers thick and is made from four lengths that have been pasted together on the short edges. Presumably it is adhered together with arrow root, per Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology. The lengths of these individual sheets are 3.5, 1.0, 2.34, and 2.24 meters long. The tapa is white and is embellished or fringed. It is of fairly uniform width but does vary along its length and curves slightly. It has a dense smooth surface. Rectangular paper tag reading, in black ink, "Box No 25. L" was attached with a straight pin. No Peale label was located. Tapa had been folded in storage formerly. There are numerous small circular areas of staining (probably water staining) that are dark in color as well as yellowish brown diffuse staining both running the length of the tapa toward one edge. Pattern likely due to water damage occuring while the tapa was folded.
label: Notes
content: As of 2013, this object is stored rolled.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Jul 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fiji, Melanesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Fijian
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E4387-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 8.63 m
label: Width - Object
content: 53 cm