Made of wood, skin (parchment), cord, and decorated black and red paint.

The ends are covered with wood hoops drawn tight with cord.

One side has two black cow-like animal motifs, about which is a bar of black and red lines and spots with a large circle in the middle. Above the band, in red, are five figures - four with beaked heads, the other with two horns. In the left corner is a waning crescent and a circle in the right, both in red. On the other end is a red and black cross with a circular spot at the intersection of the lines.

The British Museum accession record suggests that the motifs could represent thunderers and cattle, or beings associated with the underworld.

Inscription on the side reads "Indian Drum Hudson's Bay Territory."

British Museum accession record.

Collected by Henry Christy from the Hudson's Bay region, probably Manitoulin Island, around 1856. Donated to the British Museum by Christy between 1860 and 1868.

For an on-line essay on this drum with Elder's comments, see: http://nativedrums.ca/index.php/Scholars/Deheigan?tp=a&bg=3&ln=e

JCH King 'First Peoples, First Contacts' (BMP, 1999) p.66;
Green 'Eastern Great Lakes Declaw Rattles with Thunderbird and Lightning Imagery,' in Whispering Wind (vol.30 no.4 1999) p.13; Reid and Vastokas, 'From the Four Quarters Toronto,' (1984) p.24, 38; JCH King, 'Thunderbird and Lightning,' (BMP, 1982) p. 62; Harper, 'Paul Kane's Frontier,' (1971) p. 274-5.

This drum's creation, meaning, collection, and engagement in The British Museum is a primary topic of:
Buchanan, Ruth, & Jeffery G. Hewitt. 2017. “Encountering Settler Colonialism through Legal Objects: A Painted Drum and Handwritten Treaty from Manitoulin Island.” Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 68(3):291-304.

See E.B. Tylor, 'Anahuac,'(1861, p.232,235) for a description of Henry Christy's acquisiton of this drum.

Unknown Anishinaabeg artist, drum. Currently in the British Museum, Am.2144. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 27163.

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).

Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Darlene Johnston (DJ), Jonathan King (JK), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Cory Willmott (CW).