nettlestock or hemp fibre (Apocynum); dyed moose hair in blue, red and white, red ochre; glass beads (size 10); tin cones; moosehair (originally in tin cones)

The strap is made with a twined weave and rubbed with red ochre on the front and back. The belt embroidered with a false embroidery or surface technique.

The motif is a Greek key or dovetail design. Each field is broken in two halves in blue/red.
Stamped across the belt are the numbers "486" and "1246" which were probably the Royal Artillery Museum's accession numbers.

The presence of red ochre suggests this strap may have been used as a prisoner tie.

The use of red ochre is unusual for a burden strap or pouch strap-- it suggests therefore that this was a prisoner tie (CW). Its origin is a Military Museum. Information and colour photocopies of ?similar objects provided by James F. O'Neill II, visiting researcher from Dayton, Ohio, USA, and his colleagues Scott Meachum, and Tim and Tom Connin. All enclosed with a letter dated 19 August 1997: 5. Acc. 1954.9.20. This is another wonderful item. There are quite a few of moose hair embroidered tumplines or burden straps and very few examples of belts like this. There is an example of a tumpline in the Heve Foundation that is a very similar pattern (bottom of Picture 2 page 5). This strap may now be in the North American Indian Museum (sorry, we do not have the number). The Chicago Fields [sic] Museum has one of the few other belts like this in its collection (Bottom of Picture 4, Page 5). This item is Acc. No. 2820, Fuller collection, 155571 Ent. I have include [sic] a painting of Sa Ga Yeath Qua Rah Tow, a Maqas Indian (Iroquois) done in 1710 and is at the National Archives of Canada (Page 7). This clearly shows a moose hair embroidered belt being worn." [Page numbers refer to colour photocopies included in file.] Information from James O'Neil, Researcher, Ohio: There are quite a few examples of moose hair embroidered tumplines or burden straps and very few examples of belts like this. [JN, 1998]. Christian Feest notes that the length of this object suggests it may have been used as a pouch strap. It is of a type often identified as 'Huron' but made more widely (Laura Peers, 2/3/2005].

1750-1800. Stylistic comparison by LP and Christian Feest gives this date attribution. However it could be earlier. CW says the uneven nature of the beads suggests an earlier period.

PRM Accession Book Entry: "Mrs. H.G. Beasley of White Barn, Sunningdale, Berks, specimens from the Cranmore Museum," donated it to the PRM in 1954. Information from the PRM object catalogue indicates that Mr. Harry Geoffrey Beasley bought it in 1932 from the Artillery Museum, Woolwich., in 1932.

The PRM additional Accession Book Entry reads: '1954.9.20 Figured and described in "Hair Embroidery in Siberia and N. America," by G.E.S Turner. Pitt Rivers Museum Occasional papers in Technology. No.7. In the file there is a photocopy of Plate XIV-A, from Turner, 1955, showing this object, and a reference to this Plate in Brasser, Theodore J.C.1975, A Basketful of Indian culture Change, National Museum of Man. Mercury Series, Canada Ethnology Series, Paper 22, Ottawa, Canada.

This information was drawn from the PRM object catalogue.

This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Laura Peers (LP), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).