Pottery Bowl
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Jan 1867
name: label: Donor Name
content: John Varden
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "5,449 - 5,451. SIMPLE UNDECORATED BOWLS OF REDDISH CLAY ABOUT 1/4" THICK. ORIGINAL CATALOG OF JOHN VARDEN'S WASHINGTON MUSEUM (IN SMITHSONIAN ARCHIVES) INDICATES THAT ON MARCH 22, 1838, VARDEN, WHILE AT MOBILE, ALABAMA, COLLECTED "THREE BOWLS [E5449 - 5451] MADE BY INDIANS OF THE SIX NATIONS IN ALABAMA," FROM BENJAMIN LAURENDEN. THE SIX TOWNS (NATION?) WAS ONE OF THE NAMES FOR THE SOUTHERN GROUP OF CHOCTAW, WHO LIVED IN JASPER AND SMITH COUNTIES, MISSISSIPPI, BEFORE THEIR REMOVAL. VARDEN'S ALABAMA LOCATION PROBABLY IS INACCURATE, UNLESS, PERCHANCE THE SPECIMENS WERE OBTAINED FROM AN INDIVIDUAL THEN RESIDING IN ALABAMA. 03-10-1987 lent to Mississippi State Historical Museum. Loan returned Jan 14, 1988."
label: Notes
content: This bowl (E5451-1) may be misnumbered. There are two items marked 5451: this flat-bottomed bowl and a large rim sherd from a bowl. The sherd (E5451-0, formerly A5451-0) is marked with the number in older ink that matches the other two bowls, E5449 and E5450, and it is a rounder shape, also like the other two bowls. So it appears that the sherd is more likely the "real" 5451. This flat-bottomed bowl is marked "5451 Choctaw" but it is in newer lettering / ink. The sherd does not fit with the broken rim on the bowl, so they are not part of the same bowl.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 3 Jul 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Jasper County (not certain) / Smith County (not certain), Mississippi, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Choctaw
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: E5451-1
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Pot