Soapstone Sculpture: Elephants
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Oct 2014
name: label: Donor Name
content: Elkana Ong'esa
notes: label: Notes
content: Sculpture of 3 elephants (2 adults and a calf) standing with heads raised and trunks intertwined. Made of Kisii stone, a soapstone-like material that is quarried in western Kenya near Lake Victoria. The stone has natural bands of color - pink at the top, then gray, and then a band of mottled purple and gray along the bottom. Made by artist Elkana Ong'esa and purchased from him at the 2014 Folklife Festival by Dr. Mary J Arnoldi, curator of African Ethnology, on behalf of the museum. The artist described his choice of the elephant grouping as a way to represent Kenya's rich natural heritage and to celebrate his nation's commitment to conserve its elephants and other wildlife.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Aug 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Washington, D.C., Kenya / United States, Africa / North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kenyan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2070845
label: USNM Number
content: E433618-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sculpture
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 19 cm
label: Width
content: 9 cm
label: Height
content: 22 cm