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: TEN LAYER BARK CLOTH SKIRT STITCHED TOGETHER ALONG ONE SIDE WITH TAPA CORD. TWO OUTER LAYERS WHICH HAVE NO WATERMARK, ARE DECORATED WITH BLACK AND RED LINE DESIGNS. THE INNER LAYERS HAVE DIFFERING WATERMARKS. THE PIECE HAS BEEN EATEN BY VERMIN OF VARIOUS SORTS. HAS ORIGINAL PEALE TAG; ALSO A TAG READS, "HILO, HAWAII, EX EX B[OX]. 4 D"
label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "3521-33. MADE FROM THE BARK OF THE PAPER MULBERRY AND DYED RED WITH DARKER LINES. THIS CLOTH IS MANUFACTURED BY THE WOMEN WHO PLACE THE BARK, AFTER SOAKING IT IN WATER UNTIL IT IS SOFTENED, UPON A LOG, AND BEAT IT OUT THIN WITH WOODEN MALLETS. BEFORE BEATING THEY SCRAPER THE BARK WITH RUDE [sic] SHELL INSTRUMENTS TO REMOVE THE OUTER SKIN."
label: Notes
content: This tapa is a ten sheeted pa'u (skirt). It is decorated on both outer sheets with stamped design. The sheets are bound together on one side with a strip of tapa sewing the edges together. The remaining eight sheets are undecorated but all retain decorative beater marks. Four have similar beater marks of diamond shapes and four have beater marks of wide spaced parallel lines. Four of these sheets have a tan color and the other four have a blue/gray cast. All but one of the sheets are thin and finely beaten. One of the decorated outer sheets is more coarsely pounded and has no beater mark. According to Moana Eisele, Hawaiian tapa/kapa maker, this piece is bound like a kapa mo'e (sleeping blanket). She said a pa'u should have loose sheets. She also thought this piece is too short for a pa'u.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 5 Jun 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Hawaii (Hawaiʻi), United States, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Hawaiian (Kanaka ʻŌiwi, Kanaka Maoli)
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: E3521-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 434 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 150 cm