Bark Cloth, Colored
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 # 1435 - 1456 as "Ngatu." Bark cloth prepared for curtains by the natives of the Fiji Islands."
label: Notes
content: The material of the bark cloth (masi) comes from the inner bark of the paper mulberry. After the inner bark was removed from the plant, and left to soak in water, it would have been beaten by a wooden mallet on an anvil, to become a sheet of masi. Currently there are two parts. Both parts have a very similar pattern of straight and diagonal lines and dots, which suggests that they were both part of the same masi. Unfortunately there appears to be a piece missing between the two parts. The border pattern of the larger part also matched closely with the pattern of E4393, which suggests that they may also join together.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Jul 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
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: E4390-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 386 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 172 cm