Knowledge Sharing Platform
wampum strings
wampum strings
wampum strings
Six strings of purple and white wampum. Northeastern woodlands, made between 1600 and 1850. Collected by the English ethnologist Henry Christy, who donated it to the British Museum between 1860 and 1869.
Created with information from the British Museum accession record and observations made by the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
Purple and white wampum strung on a vegetable fibre thread.
Six strands of mostly white wampum with a few purple beads mixed in, creating an interesting pattern. The drill holes are uneven suggesting the beads are older.
BM suggests this may be a message wampum due to the arrangement of the purple and the number of strings, which suggest it holds an important message. AC less confident due to the possibility of restringing, but then we realized that the string matrix was vegetable fibre, so it is likely still in its original matrix.
British Museum object catalogue entry
Provenance
Donated to the British Museum by English ethnologist Henry Christy between 1860 and 1869.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown artist, wampum strings. Currently in the British Museum, Am.4117. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 27155.
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), Alan Corbiere (AC), Henrietta Lidchi (HL), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).