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miniature snowshoes
miniature snowshoes
miniature snowshoes
Miniature snowshoes made of wood, vegetable fibre, silk ribbon, woven cotton, and yarn. Each snowshoe is made of one piece of wood bent and attached at the bottom with stitches. Collected by Martin Pitzer, this item is currently housed at the Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna, Austria.
In Martin Pitzer'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).
GRASAC research notes created during an onsite visit to Weltmuseum in January of 2016.
Read More About This Relative
Wood, vegetable fibre/cord; silk ribbon; woven cotton; yarn (red, blue).
One piece of wood bent and attached at the bottom with stitches of unknown material; netting.
Pitzer described these snowshoes in the following way: "Since sugar extraction takes place in February and March, and at this time the snow is quite deep, Indians use such snowshoes, woven with deer gut, which keep them on the surface of the snow; they walk so well with these, that they are able to cover a half‐hour’s distance within an hour."
Martin Pitzer collected this item, possibly when he travelled to the Great Lakes in the 1850s.
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 items and brought them back to Austria to be part of an exhibition to raise money for the mission.
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: 11.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Odawa artist, snowshoes. Currently in the Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 131753. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip January 2016; GRASAC item id 59040.
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 of 2022 by GRASAC RA Aidan Mitchell-Boudreau.