Spring New Bee Hiving Moon
Preparing an American History tour, from the earliest inhabitants through the Civil War. A more interesting assignment that I had imagined. My oldest object will be the birdstone, an atlatl weight made during the Archaic period of the Woodlands culture in what is now Ohio. That puts it well back in the 4,000 year old category. Beautiful, simple, abstract and made with a real feel for the stone, it is an object that could have been made yesterday by a skilled contemporary artist.
I’m also including a memorial screen from the Ijaw people who lived in and on the Niger River Delta on the west coast of Africa. These screens, of which this is the only example in the US, commemorate the head of Ijaw trading houses. These trading houses began exchanges with Portuguese and Dutch merchants in the late 15th century. They rivaled in wealth the European merchant princes of the time.
Why are they on an American history tour? They offered gold, ivory and slaves for European goods. The slave trade began long before the Europeans arrived.
A Dakota honor shirt, a Haida pipe (non-functional) carved of argillite for sale to whalers, the Gilbert Stuart George Washington, the Charleston room (based on wealth created by slave managers and slave labor in the Lowlands), the trompe l’oeil piece, Reminiscences, a wonderful crazy pot made by the Anna Pottery that features Jefferson Davis trying to escape northern troops while dressed as a woman, the view of Ft. Snelling with the Dakota encampment and Fournier’s soulful depiction of a trading ship on Lake Superior in the late 19th century complete the tour.
And that’s what I did with my Wednesday morning.
Feeling better today and I have no idea why. Weird.
