Materials

birch bark; red stroud,fine quality; brown thread; moosehair.

Techniques or Format

This work is made of birch bark with an outer cover of fine quality red stroud, embroidered with moosehair. Bundled animal hair is tacked down with brown thread as a border for the edges.

Motifs and Patterns

The object is worked with floral motifs. On the borders there is a tiny interwoven checkerboard/cross motif.

Dimensions: 9.5 × 7 × 0 cm

Condition: It is in good condition but has had quite a lot of conservation work to stop hairs from falling out (H Richardson, PRM).

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

The use of aniline dye in the color of the moosehair means it must be later than 1858, the date when the dye was first used. The PRM object catalogue gives c. 1865 as the date of manufacture.

Current Location: Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 1935.75.36.1-2

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1938

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: It was acquired from field collector ?Isabella Christina [Montagu] Burrows.

Collection Narratives and Histories

Loaned to the Pitt Rivers Museum by Isabella Christina [Montagu] Burrows 1935. It was donated to the museum in 1938.

Publication History

This item figured in occasional papers No 7 (Turner Hair embroidery), pl IX, p2.

Comment on Source of Exhibition & Publication Data

The information for publication data came from the Pitt Rivers museum Object Catalogue.

GKS Reference Number: 25870

Record Creation Context

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).

Record Creation Notes/Observations

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