Materials

tanned smoked deerhide; porcupine quills in red-orange, black, white, yellow, and blue-green; wooden tube.

Techniques or Format

The band is made of one piece of hide with seven rows of braided quillwork sewn on top, divided into a red field around the front of the band and a smaller black field around the back. The tube has holder for the insertion of a feather or feathers, which are now missing. Three quill-wrapped elements hang down from the tube, ending in metal cones filled with remnants of red animal hair. The top and lower edges of the band are edged with a line of single quill stitching. The ends of the rows of the braided quills are joined and wrapped with a red quill and finished with two metal cones with remnants of animal hair.

Motifs and Patterns

Checkerboard and diamond motifs.

Condition: Good. Feathers, some metal cones, and animal hair are missing.

Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

This headband was collected by military officers who fought in the Seven Years' War.

Current Location: Blair Castle, Pitlochry, Scotland

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: unnumbered

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1759-1768

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: 1759-1768

Collection Narratives and Histories

It is most likely that the collector or collectors of the 18th century North American indigenous items now at Blair Castle were soldiers related to the Duke of Atholl who fought in North America during the Seven Years' War (specifically between 1759 and 1768). These include the Duke’s nephews, Lieut. James Murray of the 42nd Highland Regiment (Black Watch) and Captain George Murray, Royal Navy. Another possible source is Lieut. Alexander Farquharson, who collected Great Lakes indigenous items for his patron, ? Farquharson, Laird of Invercauld and husband of the Duke’s niece, Lady Sinclair. A 1768 letter in the Blair Castle archives shows that Capt. George Murray, then returned to Europe, had sent things both to the Duke and to the Lady Sinclair and her mother. Lieut. James Murray and Alexander Farquharson fought in the army of Lord Amherst, which moved up from New York City, along the Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain to Montreal in 1759-60, fighting alongside Hodenosaunee and Anishinaabe allies. The items at Blair Castle could have originated amongst either, but the location of Amherst's army through Mohawk and other Hodenosaunee territories makes a Hodenosaunee origin especially likely for many of them.

GKS Reference Number: 26232

Record Creation Context

GRASAC site visit April 28, 2009. Participants: Alison Brown, Henrietta Lidchi, Ruth Phillips and Nancy Wachowich, assisted by Blair Castle archivist Jane Anderson.