Suit Of Armor
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1991
name: label: Donor Name
content: No Information
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Collector possibly Columbian Expos. 1893?, or Mrs. M.C. Audenreid [sic], 1895? [however Felicia Pickering has doubts that this is from Acc. 27832, Chicago World's Fair material, or from Mrs. Audenried, see below.] Cuirass has light brown lacquered plates and light blue tapes plus a patterned cloth pocket. Helmet is two-toned gold and brown with a gold disc crest; red horsehair plume on back of helmet. 3/17/70 Description: Kabuto - momo-nari, w/ Hineno shik. Mempo - white moustache Do - modified minobe w/ breast pocket Kote- shino Sode - kosode Haidate - Iyo Suneate - bishamon Includes sandals (Display Condition) On loan for exhibit purposes to Div. of Naval History [NMAH] 5/11/71. Returned from loan [due to deteriorating condition], 11/17/89." Old NMAH exhibit label with artifact calls it: "Japanese Samurai armor, Tokugawa Period (17th - 19th centuries)."
label: Notes
content: This armor is shown in old U. S. National Museum exhibit case photos such as negative # 2581 (new copy negative # 2004-18708), and SIA2007-0132-1, where this armor is on the right. Photo 2581/2004-18708 is illustrated in Plate 2, Fig. 1, after p. 24 in U. S. National Museum Annual Report for the year 1893, published in 1895, and photo appears to date circa 1881 - 1893? One possible catalogue # for this armor might be 92428, which is listed in Anthropology catalogue ledger book only as "Armor of Japanese soldier", acquired by exchange, and was catalogued in 1884, 92428 might be the number for ET610, though it might also possibly be the # for the armor that was formerly displayed on Japanese mannequin 14171 (this armor is currently called that number). If ET610 would be Catalogue number 92428, it is possible then that it could be from Accession No. 13947, which is recorded as an accession from the (U.S.) Department of State, January 18, 1884. A letter dated January 8, 1884 from then Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen addressed to Spencer Baird is in the accession file, where Frelinghuysen notes: "The Department has had in its possession for several years an interesting suit of Japanese armor; and as we have no proper place for its exhibition, if it would be agreeable to you receive it as a deposit in the National Museum, I will cause it to be sent to you."
label: Notes
content: Note that Smithsonian Archives records, under RU 305, box 172, loan accession # 30001, Catalogue No. L106, November 1895 (Fiscal year 1896), have records related to a loan of Japanese armor to the Smithsonian from Mrs. M. C. Audenried (SI records mistakenly list her name as Audenreid). She was Mrs. Mary Jane Colket Audenried, widow of Colonel Joseph Crain Audenried, who had been William Tecumseh Sherman's chief of staff till he died in 1880. Mrs. Audenried indicates the armor was mounted and had been a gift to her late husband. See also https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss39800a.11009/?sp=1 . The timing of this loan, and the fact that a photo of armor ET610 was published in the USNM Annual Report for 1893, makes it highly questionable that armor ET610 came from Mrs. Audenried. The 1893 USNM Annual Report was published in 1895, but since the armor came from Mrs. Audenried in late 1895, the timing does not seem right.
label: Notes
content: See also Smithsonian Institution Archives photo (glass negative) MNH-2869, where this armor is visible toward the right of the image (full citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 11-007, Box 012, Image No. MNH-2869; https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_388413 ). The photo has been dated to the 1880s, and other artifacts in the photo are from the Horace Capron collection, which first was lent to the Smithsonian in 1881 (and later accessioned into the collections). This may be further evidence that 92428 might be the number for ET610? Also, note Horace Capron's publication/catalog on the collection he deposited (lent to) the Smithsonian in 1881 - United States National Museum. Gen. Horace Capron's collection of specimens of antique Japanese works of art. [Smithsonian Institution], 1883. doi: https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.458653.39088007622228 . Item No. 137 in Capron's collection catalog was a "Japanese coat of mail". His collection was later sold to the Smithsonian by his widow in 1891. It is currently unclear if the armor was included in the collection at the time of the sale, but one can speculate that armor ET610 could possibly also be the armor from Capron and that it was missed during the original cataloguing of the collection, because it was on exhibit. See for example Capron screens E96876, 7 and 8, which were included in the 1891 Capron donation, but were not catalogued until 1968.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 13
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Japanese
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 999999
label: USNM Number
content: ET610-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Armor