Materials

moose antler; mirror; brass tacks.

Techniques or Format

One of the tines of the moose antler forms the handle. Others have been sawed off to create a spatula shape into which is set a small mirror, in the concave face of the antler. The handle is pierced for a wrist strap.

Motifs and Patterns

One side: two large circles with dots in the centres, one is quartered, seven smaller ones on the edge, image of a buffalo with cross-hatching in body; Other side: the handle has a series of parallel bands filled with hatching and cross-hatching and a long straight horned snake, two buffalo near its end, two bears, two underwater panthers near snake's head, and a running deer at the top.

Original and Subsequent Uses

From An Unusual Winnebago War Club by Frances Eyman (1963): "[mirrors] were magical in their function; the reflected image was correlated with the soul, the shade, the reflected self, as indicated by linguistic data in many native languages."

Dimensions: 34 × 12 × 3.5 cm

Condition: The club is in good condition. It is missing a number of inset brass tacks on one edge and in the centre of the circles.
From An Unusual Winnebago War Club by Frances Eyman (1963): "Edges of the club were originally set with some seventy tacks, but these were lost long ago. Fragments which remain in the holes appear to be hand-forged square shanks of the kind made in the earliest 1800s and earlier..."

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

According to An Unusual Winnebago War Club by Frances Eyman (1963), Pusey collected the club at Fort Winnebago in 1839.

Current Location: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 62-15-1 (Penn number); 62-32-1 (incorrect other number)

Link to Institution's Collections Database: https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/98696

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1962

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Purchased from A. Edith Pusey through T. S. Naughnessy, 1962

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: 1839

Collection Narratives and Histories

This relative comes from Fort Winnebago in Wisconsin. It was collected by Caleb W. Pusey (a member of a prominent Philadelphia family) in 1839, when he travelled there from Philadelphia as part of a land claim settlement. This was one year before the Winnebago were forcibly removed to Iowa.

Source for Provenance information

Eyman, Alice F. "An Unusual Winnebago War Club and an American Water Monster." Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 5, no. 4. (1963): 31-33.

Museum documentation.

Exhibition History

Penn Museum: Native American Voices: The People-Here and Now (March 2014- Present)

Publication History

Eyman, Alice F. "An Unusual Winnebago War Club and an American Water Monster." Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 5, no. 4. (1963): 31-33.

Maurer, Evan M. The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art. Chicago, IL: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1977. See: Page 120/Fig 120

Feder, Norman. American Indian Art: New Shorter Edition. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1965. Page/Fig./Plate: 151 See: Page 139/Fig 162

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. 84, pl. 101a, pl. 101b

GKS Reference Number: 26109

How to Cite this Item

Maker, Name unrecorded. Club, ceremonial with mirror board. GRASAC ID 26109. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 62-15-1.

Record Creation Context

This information was gathered during a GRASAC site research visit by Alan Corbiere, David Penney, Stacey Loyer, Ruth Phillips and William Wierzbowski (curator) on December 2, 2009.
This record was augmented by Joy Kruse on March 29, 2025.