Carved Wooden Figurine
date: label: Accession Date
content: 12 Jun 1937
name: label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Beatrice E. Kelley
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "HARD WOOD; TRACES OF PAINT; PROVIDED WITH HUMAN HAIR WIG AND MUSTACHIOS; SQUATTING POSITION; HOLDING SACRED BUNDLE BETWEEN THE KNEES, IN DOESKIN BAG (BLUE/WHITE STRIPED COTTON BAG, 1977). ILLUS. IN BAE BULL. 132, PL. 19, P. 232 (ATTRIBUTED TO THE CADDO). LOANED TO THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF ART ON SEPT. 10, 1971. RETURNED ... 2-9-(19)72. LOANED TO THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 6/22/(19)77, RETURNED 12/1/(19)77. ILLUS.: EWERS, JOHN C. PLAINS INDIAN SCULPTURE; FRONT COVER AND PL. 3, PG. 19." PERHAPS SOUTHERN PLAINS, ATTRIBUTED TO OSAGE OR CADDO. COLLECTED IN OKLAHOMA. - W. STURTEVANT 1997
label: Notes
content: Outer cloth for bundle figure is holding is blue and beige striped fabric (resembling mattress ticking), tied with a skin tie. Inside the striped cloth are two small skin bags tied closed.
label: Notes
content: This carving was received with limited data beyond the assertion that it came from Oklahoma. It is not known when the cloth bundle became associated with it or what it might contain. A provisional attribution as "Lower Mississippian" in original cataloging was later entered on the catalog card as "Caddo?", which in turn was changed to "Caddo" when data was entered into the computer database. The figure is illustrated and described on p. 17 of Torrence, Gaylord. 2014. The Plains Indians Artists of Earth and Sky. Skira. David Penney's catalogue entry identifies it as a human effigy, 18th century?, Southeastern Plains artist, Caddoan, and notes about it: "A Caddo attribution may have been suggested by the resemblance between this figure and small, seated figures of red cedar recovered in the 1930s from the Spiro site (see Hamilton 1952, pl. 26; Brose, Brown and Penney 1985, pl. 96). While the Spiro figures sit cross-legged with their hands on their knees, this figure has its knees drawn up with arms crossed over them - the same posture used in an important pair of Mississippian (Nodena phase) ancestral figures recovered from Mississippi County, Arkansas (Dye and Wharey 1989, 330-331). Although the ethnic identity of Lower Mississippian peoples remains uncertain to archaeologists, they were likely Dhegian Siouan speakers ancestral to the Ponca, Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Feb 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Lower Mississippi River, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Caddo (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 140942
label: USNM Number
content: E378577-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure