Indigo Tie-Dye Cloth
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1987
label: Collection Date
content: 1971
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Loretta R. Reinhardt
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Loretta R. Reinhardt
notes: label: Notes
content: A tiny tag (written by the collector?) was pinned to the object, and said “1971-107 p-c”. Dr. Reinhardt did a study of indigo dyeing among the Mende of Sierra Leone in 1971 (published as “Mrs. Kadiato Kamara: an expert dyer in Sierra Leone” vol. 66, no. 2 in Fieldiana, from the Field Museum of Natural History, 1976). So it seems likely that this textile is from that trip to Sierra Leone, but this is unconfirmed / undocumented.
label: Notes
content: Length of machine-woven, white, cotton (?) damask cloth. Resist-dyed (tie-dyed) with indigo to create large concentric-diamond pattern. Some remnants of the ties remain stitched into the cloth near the center line. Ends are cut and unhemmed.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sierra Leone (not certain), Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Mende (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 378806
label: USNM Number
content: E437461-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cloth
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 175 cm
label: Width
content: 127.5 cm