Tapa Or Bark Cloth
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: FROM CARD: "1 PIECE EACH."
label: Notes
content: Peale catalogue identifies # 1457 - 1464: "Cloth made of bark, preparatory to being printed [Fiji]." In addition, someone added later in pencil in the Peale catalogue: "1415=3292 Hawaiian." Tapa has also been identified as central Polynesian, not Fijian and tentatively attributed to Tahiti by Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology, 2012.
label: Notes
content: Large undecorated white rectangular tapa. Texture has a stiff feel, as though heavily sized. Beater marks are visible as very narrow parallel lines, often crossing over one another, creating a cross hatch appearance. Edges are turned over and beaten into finished edges. Tapa appears to be a uniformly beaten piece. One dark hair strand (from the person beating?) appears to have been beaten into the tapa.
label: Notes
content: Has original Peale # label.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Tahiti (not certain), Hawaii (Hawaiʻi) (not certain) / Society Islands (not certain), Fiji (not certain) / United States (not certain) / France (not certain), Melanesia (not certain) / Polynesia (not certain)
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Fijian (?)
label: Culture
content: Polynesian (?)
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: E3292-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 437 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 211 cm