Bark Cloth
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: LARGE, VERY RAGGED PIECE OF WHITE BARK CLOTH WITH BROWN RUBBED ON DESIGN FROM "UPETI" DESIGN BOARD, WITH LINES PAINTED IN DARK BROWN AND SOLID DOTS IN THE CENTER OF THE DESIGN SECTIONS. THIS PIECE IS VERY SIMILAR TO ANOTHER LARGE PIECE, WHICH IS IN EQUALLY BAD CONDITION, BUT WHICH HAS THE NUMBER 4393 - THEY MAY ACTUALLY BE FROM THE SAME PIECE.
label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: 4388-4402. CAT. 4389, ORIG. ? TAPA, TYPICAL UPETI DESIGN. SAMOA. THIN SHEET, IN VERY BAD SHAPE. VERY SMALL SAMPLE TAKEN BY K. P. EMORY, 6/24/41."
label: Notes
content: Long rectangular tapa, soft, thin and flexible. Design is divided longitudinally into two sections. One section has many light brown/red dots, made by using a taut string wound around pegs and snapping the color onto the cloth, per Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology. Several designs exist within the taut string motif, depending on length and angle of string. The opposite design section has a variety of straight lines, curves, and leaf designs with straight dark lines drawn over these in another pattern. The two long ends are finished by slight rolling. Tapa was folded in storage, with the top fold heavily covered in a layer of fine mud, presumably from its travels. Along the middle fold are periodic jagged losses, as though middle sections have been ripped out. Both long edges have also been torn off, leaving a very irregular loss pattern. Tapa may have been part of a much longer piece originally.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 17 Sep 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: American Samoa (not certain), Samoa (not certain) / United States (not certain), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Samoan
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: E4389-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 388.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 137 cm