War Horn
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Jan 1867
name: label: Donor Name
content: John Varden
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "THIS SPECIMEN LISTED IN JOHN VARDEN'S WASHINGTON MUSEUM CATALOG (ORIGINAL IN SMITHSONIAN ARCHIVES) AS: "HORN TRUMPET MADE FROM THE TUSK OF THE ELEPHANT. AFRICAN." RECEIVED BY JOHN VARDEN FROM S. S. GURLEY [sic, should be R. R. Gurley, i.e. Ralph Randolph Gurley], MARCH 1840 - OCT. 25, 1951, JOHN C. EWERS. ILLUS. IN USMN AR, 1892; PL. 97, FIG. 9; P. 438, ALSO REPT, 1896, PL. 68, FIG. 9, P. 552." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "WAR HORN.---ELEPHANT'S TUSK, RUDELY CARVED ABOUT MOUTH-HOLE AND SMALLER END. SUSPENDED BY A CORD OF HUMAN HAIR SENNIT. LENGTH, 20 INS. DIAMETER OF BELL, 3 1/2 INS. AFRICA. 5,412. GIFT OF J. VARDEN." Ceremonial horn is illustrated and discussed in Hart, W. A., "Early-Nineteenth-Century Chiefs' Horns from Coastal Liberia," African Arts, Vol. 32, No. 3. (Autumn, 1999), pp. 62-67+96. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9933%28199923%2932%3A3%3C62%3AECHFCL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T . See especially pp. 63 - 64. Hart concludes the horn is most likely from Liberia.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Feb 2019
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Liberia (not certain), Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: African
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 68A00002
label: USNM Number
content: E5412-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Horn
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 51 cm
label: Diameter - Bell
content: 8.9 cm