cigar case, birchbark with moosehair embroidery

cigar case, birchbark with moosehair embroidery

cigar case, birchbark with moosehair embroidery

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Introduction

This Huron-Wendat cigar case is made from wiigwaas (birchbark) and embroidered with moosehair. It likely was made in the mid- to late nineteenth century. This relative was collected by Charles Hallowell Stephens on June 13, 1907. His whole collection was left to his son D. Owen Stephens, whose wife sold it to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1945, where this bag currently resides.

Name of Maker(s): Maker unrecorded
Nation of Maker: Huron-Wendat
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular nation(s)

Huron-Wendat attribution comes from museum documentation.

Date Made or Date Range: 1860s to 1890s
Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

Museum documentation and the GRASAC research team.

Materials

birchbark; moose hair, white and dyed green, peach, reddish pink, brown; brown thread.

Techniques or Format

This cigar case is made of birch bark embroidered with moose hair. Thread is used in the embroidery technique.

Motifs and Patterns

The moosehair embroidery forms flowers and berries.

Dimensions: 1.2 × 7.5 × 13 cm
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

It was collected by Stephens on June 13, 1907. The date made is based on style.

Current Location: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 45-15-1328A (case); 45-15-1328B (case lid)
Link to Institution's Collections Database: https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/243903
Collection at Current Location: Charles H. Stephens Collection
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1945
Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Purchased from Mrs. Owen Stephens, 1945
Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: Before June 1907
Collection Narratives and Histories

According to the catalogue card, this relative was collected by Charles Hallowell Stephens on June 13, 1907. His whole collection was left to his son D. Owen Stephens, whose wife sold it to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1945, where this bag currently resides. The Penn database says the case was in an exhibition at the museum in 1944, so it may have entered the collection a bit before it was formally sold to the museum.

Source for Provenance information

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Exhibition History

Penn Museum: Native American Voices: The People-Here and Now (March 1 2014 to Present)
Penn Museum: Five Thousand Years of Vanity (January 6, 1944 to February 28, 1944)

Publication History

Williams, Lucy F. Guide to the North American Ethnographic Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2003. (See: p. 87, pl. 106)

GKS Reference Number: 24895
How to Cite this Item

Maker, Name unrecorded. Cigar case, birchbark with moosehair embroidery. GRASAC ID 24895. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 45-15-1328A & 45-15-1328B.

Record Creation Context

This information was gathered during a GRASAC study visit, participants: David Penney, Ruth Phillips, Stacey Loyer, and William Wierzbowski, December 3, 2009.
This record was augmented by Joy Kruse on February 8, 2025.

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