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birchbark container
birchbark container
birchbark container
Octagonal birchbark container adorned with brightly coloured quillwork and silk ribbon edging. It has a fitted lid and features floral patterns throughout. Possibly originally a purse. Collected by Martin Pitzer when he travelled to the Great Lakes in the 1850s. Currently housed at the Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna.
In Martin Pitzier's "Index of Objects and Woks of an American Indian Tribe in the Far North, Together With a Description of the Same," he writes that the items in this book are from "the north ‐ eastern part of North America, and is called the tribe of the Otawahs, or Ottawas" (35).
Read More About This Relative
Birchbark, green silk ribbon, thread, porcupine quills; strap is made of two ply cotton string wrapped with porcupine quills; blue silk edging visible on bottom.
Each panel is edged with green silk that is stitched down with thread.
Floral and leaf motifs featured throughout.
Octagonal lidded basket with a handle (part of which is broken off and inside the container); it is unlined; panel pattern is: A, B C, D; A, B, C, D.
Martin Pitzer collected this item, he travelled to the Great Lakes region in the 1850s. In 1854 Pitzer published an exhibit catalogue with the items he collected at Arbre Croche and Cross Village.
Provenance
Austrian church painter Martin Pitzer travelled to the Great Lakes region, to "the Ottawa villages of Arbre Croche and Cross Village" in the early 1850s. He collected a significant number of item and brought them back to Austria to be part of an exhibition to raise money for the mission.
Martin Pitzer collected items during his trip to Arbre Croche and Cross Village in the 1850s and displayed them in a travelling exhibition upon his return to Austria. The Pitzer collection later went to the Weltmuseum Wien, Austria.
In 1854 Pitzer published an accompanying catalogue for the show with additional information on each item.
Kasprycki, Sylvia. "The Native American Collection of Friderik Baraga: The Missionary as Ethnographic Collector." Etnolog 8(59). 1998. 331-354: Pitzer, Martin. "Index of Objects and Woks of an American Indian Tribe in the Far North, Together With a Description of the Same." Printed by the J. G. Weiss University Press Printing Office. Munich. 1854.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Odawa artist, birchbark container. Currently in the Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 131765 a, b. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip January 2016; GRASAC item id 59034.
In January of 2016, a small team of GRASAC researchers visited the collection to study and photograph it: Ruth Phillips, Lisa Truong, Naomi Recollet (Anishinaabe (Odawa/Ojibwe), Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory) and Wahsontiio Cross (Mohawk, Kahnawake). This GKS record was created in January 2022 by GRASAC RA Amelia Healey.
Created using a spreadsheet with information made by Ruth Phillips, Lisa Truong, Naomi Recollet (Anishinaabe (Odawa/Ojibwe), Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory) and Wahsontiio Cross (Mohawk, Kahnawake).
43.6, -71.9
In Martin Pitzier's "Index of Objects and Woks of an American Indian Tribe in the Far North, Together With a Description of the Same," he writes that the items in this book are from "the north ‐ eastern part of North America, and is called the tribe of the Otawahs, or Ottawas" (35).