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: Peale catalogue identifies # 1411 - 1434 as: "Masi". Cloth made of bark, worn by the men of the Fiji Islands."
label: Notes
content: Thin white rectangular tapa. Has an open lacey surface with beater marks of three parallel lines visible scattered over the surface. It appears to be one thickness and no seams are noted. The tapa is only partial as it is torn along one short edge. The other three edges are finished with a short fringe cut into the tapa and intermittent groups of long fringe. According to Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology, this type of tapa would remain undecorated and used as clothing as it is. It would be wrapped around the upper body, then between the legs and drawn up in the back and the remainder would hang down in the back. No original Peale # label was located in 2012.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fiji, Melanesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
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: E4665-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 200 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 79 cm