Cradle with Quillwork
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Oct 1881
name: label: Collector
content: George Catlin
label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Joseph Harrison Jr.
notes: label: Notes
content: ACCORDING TO JOHN EWERS, "ARTISTS' CHOICES," AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE 7 (2), 1982, PP.41-42: "IN HIS BOOK CATLIN ILLUSTRATED HOW A CRADLE FROM HIS COLLECTION WAS CARRIED, STATINGS THAT 'IT WAS PURCHASED FROM A SIOUX WOMAN'S BACK, AS SHE WAS CARRYING HER INFANT IN IT' (1841(2):132). CATLIN MUST HAVE ACQUIRED THIS CRADLE DURING ONE OF HIS SUMMER TRIPS TO THE EASTERN DAKOTA OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN 1835 OR 1836." NOTES ADDED BY C. GREENE 1/4/1999. The full reference to the illustration of the cradle is Plate 232a (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433081680336?urlappend=%3Bseq=251), after p. 132, and it is described on p. 132 (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433081680336?urlappend=%3Bseq=250) of Catlin, George. 1841. Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and conditions of the North American Indians: written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39, Vol. 2. New-York: Wiley and Putnam. SEE CATALOGUE CARD FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. SEE ALSO PROBABLY RELATED OBJECTS E73311-2. FOR SIMILAR CRADLE SEE FIG. 168, P. 148, ILLUSTRATION OF CA. 1835 CRADLE #E27984 FROM PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM (SALEM, MA) COLLECTION, IN THE NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE: A SURVEY OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN ART, BY EVAN MAURER, ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, 1977. Same cradle is also illus. and discussed pp. 144-145 in Torrence, Gaylord. 2014. The Plains Indians Artists of Earth and Sky. Skira. SEE ALSO CRADLES FIG. 35, P. 191 AND FIG. 36, P. 192 IN PEOPLES OF THE TWILIGHT, EUROPEAN VIEWS OF NATIVE MINNESOTA 1823 TO 1862, BY CHRISTIAN FEEST AND SYLVIA KASPRYCKI, AFTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS, MN, 1999. SEE COLLECTIONS LAB ACCESSION FILE FOR XEROXES OF IMAGES OF THESE CRADLES. - F. PICKERING 5-11-2001 NOTE RE PHOTOS: 2002-12327 THRU -12334 AND 2002-12349 ARE CS/CT DETAIL SHOTS OF CRADLE. Illus. p. 197 in Catlin, George, Therese Thau Heyman, George Gurney, and Brian W. Dippie. 2002. George Catlin and his Indian Gallery. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum/W.W. Norton & Company. Illus. p. 35, and Plate 1 p. 147 in Broughton, Deanna Tidwell. Hide, Wood, and Willow : Cradles of the Great Plains Indians, University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
label: Notes
content: See p. 386 in "The George Catlin Indian Gallery in the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian Institution) with Memoir and Statistics" by Thomas [Corwin] Donaldson, in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1885, part 5, Government Printing Office, 1886, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31077461 . It is noted there: "After Mr. Catlin's return to London from Paris in 1848, he added to his gallery a series of full-length costumed figures [mannequins]." See also p. 387 of the same publication https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31077462 . There it is noted that one of these mannequins, Catlin display mannequin # 619, depicted "An Objibeway Woman, wife of Maun-gua-daus, with her infant slung in its cradle, and carried on her back, the cradle beautifully ornamented with porcupine quills ... ."
label: Notes
content: For detailed information on this cradle, see Feest C., Eastern Sioux Cradleboards. Documentary Evidence and Attributions - Antrocom J. of Anthropology 18-2a (2022) pp. 5-24. https://www.academia.edu/92986787/Eastern_Sioux_Cradleboards .
label: Record Last Modified
content: 15 Sep 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 3
place: label: Place
content: Plains (Northern) / Missouri River (Upper), United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Sioux (Oceti Sakowin), Eastern (Santee, Isanti) Dakota
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 010638
label: USNM Number
content: E73311-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cradle
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 79 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 44.4 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 25 cm