1700-1900: learning resources

John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere

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Becoming a city: daily life in 1820, Brooklyn

Key points

• While this painting looks spontaneous and like it is capturing a frozen moment, it is a composite of views from the artist’s studio windows. It does however give an accurate image of this location. Francis Guy has taken pains to carefully render the buildings, and they would have been identifiable to people who knew this part of Brooklyn.
• The scene shows the physical specifics of the neighborhood but also its social hierarchy. We see the fancy houses and shops of those higher on the social scale, and a carpenter speaking with a man who wears a fur coat and is obviously well-fed. There are also figures caring for farm animals and possibly enslaved African-American men who are sawing wood and selling coal.
• As a further indication of social hierarchy, Guy identified all of the white figures in his painting, but not any of the African-American ones. He also includes a comic scene at the expense of one African-American man who has slipped on the icy ground. This kind of making fun of African-Americans was also found in the literature and theater of the time.
• Guy has also placed himself in the painting, walking in the foreground with a painting under his arm. His attention to detail, social situations, and the broad expanse of the sky harken to the Dutch landscape and genre painting traditions, a reminder that Brooklyn was originally a Dutch colony.

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Hicks’s The Peaceable Kingdom as Pennsylvania parable

Key points

• William Penn was granted land by King Charles II in 1682 to found a colony in present-day Pennsylvania. As a Quaker, he had been persecuted in England, so Penn’s goal was to create a place of religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence. Philadelphia quickly became a community of many different peoples and faiths.
• Led by his religious convictions, William Penn sought to deal fairly with the Lenape people who lived in the region. When he added land to the colonial settlement, he compensated the Lenape. However, his son, Thomas Penn, later unfairly claimed more land than agreed on in the terms of the 1737 Walking Treaty.
• Edward Hicks was both a preacher and painter. According to his Quaker principles, fine art was frowned upon as a luxury, so Hicks specialized in utilitarian sign paintings and gave away works like Peaceable Kingdom. His style reflects this commercial influence, drawing heavily from graphic arts and lettering to create scenes that were easily understandable. He combined this with references from popular art (including a widely circulated biblical illustration) and fine art (specifically here, a painting by Benjamin West).
• In his Peaceable Kingdom series of over 60 images, Hicks depicts a visionary scene of peace on earth that extends back to include William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania.

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Catlin, The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas

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Two sides of Lakota life on a beaded suitcase

Key points

• The Lakota had a nomadic lifestyle, made possible by horses, which Spanish colonists had brought to North America in the 16th century. In the 19th century, the US government cut off their food supply by decimating the buffalo population, and then confined the Lakota to small reservations where they relied on cattle, as shown on this suitcase from the late 19th or early 20th century.
• Nellie Two Bear Gates adorns this suitcase with detailed beaded imagery, blending the Lakota’s traditional beliefs about marriage and family with modern life on a reservation in the early 20th century. To these, she adds geometric abstractions and the name of the recipient of this gift, making it both a commemorative and useful object.
• Although Gates uses glass beads, introduced to Plains Indians in the 17th or 18th century, her technique is based on quillwork Lakota women historically used to decorate clothing, regalia, and functional objects.

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Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson

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Haida clan crest totem pole

Key points

• The Indigenous peoples and nations of southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State have long practiced the art of creating and erecting totem poles. The poles are carved from the logs of giant local cedar trees and then painted. Different types of totem poles include clan crest poles, mortuary or memorial poles, potlatch poles, and shame poles (and sometimes these overlap). Each serves a different purpose in the community.
• No matter the type, totem poles convey the history and status of the clans, or matrilineal families, that create them. For the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida, all clans are members of one of a number of moieties, or groups within their community. Each moiety is represented by an animal such as the raven, eagle or wolf, and is indicated by the carving of that animal on a totem pole. Humans, animals, and supernatural beings are also carved on poles as crests; the particular combination of crests on a pole is unique to each clan. Crests reflect the stories of the clan ancestors’ interactions with the beings depicted, and remind family members about their heritage. A clan crest pole, like this one, would have been raised in front of a clan house, visible to anyone passing by the village in a canoe. Clan crests can be included on other types of totem poles as well.
• Totem poles reinforce the importance of oral and visual traditions among the Indigenous peoples and nations of the Pacific Northwest Coast, including the Haida. A good deal of individual clans’ history and broader cultural history was lost when European and Anglo-American newcomers, who began to arrive in the area in the 18th century, brought disease and misconceptions about the practices and traditions of the local Indigenous peoples and nations. Traders and colonizers destroyed or defaced totem poles incorrectly thought to be objects of religious worship.
• In the early 1970s, the combined efforts of Native elders, the Alaska State Museum, the Alaska Native Brotherhood, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Forest Service, and the City of Ketchikan brought surviving 19th-century totem poles to the Totem Heritage Center. The totem poles specifically came from former Tlingit villages on Tongass Island and Village Island and from the Haida village of Old Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island. While traditionally totem poles would be left at the spot where they were originally raised, and allowed to deteriorate so the wood would return to the earth, the poles at the Totem Heritage Center are preserved and used to teach future generations about the cultural practices of their communities.

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Haida potlatch pole

Key points

• The Indigenous peoples and nations of southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State have long practiced the art of creating and erecting totem poles. The poles are carved from the logs of giant local cedar trees and then painted. Different types of totem poles include clan crest poles, mortuary or memorial poles, potlatch poles, and shame poles (and sometimes these overlap). Each serves a different purpose in the community.
• No matter the type, totem poles convey the history and status of the clans, or matrilineal families, that create them. For the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida, all clans are members of one of a number of moieties, or groups within their community. Each moiety is represented by an animal such as the raven, eagle or wolf, and is indicated by the carving of that animal on a totem pole. Humans, animals, and supernatural beings are also carved on poles as crests; the particular combination of crests on a pole is unique to each clan. Crests reflect the stories of the clan ancestors’ interactions with the beings depicted, and remind family members about their heritage. Clan crests can be included on multiple types of totem poles.
• Potlatch poles are made on the occasion of a potlatch, a multi-day gathering in celebration or recognition of major societal events, including the death of a prominent clan member. A potlatch requires a few years of preparation by the host clan. Central to the event is the act of gift-gifting from the host clan to their guests (who are of the opposite clans in the community), a demonstration of the hosting clan’s wealth in both materials and skills. It is believed that the rings on this totem pole represent the number of potlatches held by the host clan.
• Potlatches were banned from the late 19th century through the early-to-mid 20th century in both the U.S. and Canada, as a result of European and Anglo-American newcomers’ misconceptions about the practices and traditions of the local Indigenous peoples and nations. Today, however, potlatches are once again openly held by communities in southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State.
• The word potlatch is from the Chinook Jargon language, and has come to be used more broadly to describe ceremonial gatherings throughout the Northwest Coast region. Each group or nation, however, has its own term for these events and may prefer to use that term rather than potlatch. The Haida word is wáahlaal. The Tlingit word is ku.éex. And, the Tsimshian word is loolgit.

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Tlingit mortuary and memorial poles

Key points

• The Indigenous peoples and nations of southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State have long practiced the art of creating and erecting totem poles. The poles are carved from the logs of giant local cedar trees, painted, and raised in front of clan houses, visible to anyone passing by a village in a canoe.
• Totem poles convey the history and status of the clans, or matrilineal families, that create them. For the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida, all clans are members of one of a number of moieties, or groups within their community. Each moiety is represented by an animal such as the raven, eagle or wolf, and is indicated by the carving on a totem pole. Some totem poles are made on the occasion of special clan events. Memorial and mortuary poles, in particular, honor important members of the clan after their death.
• Totem poles reinforce the importance of oral and visual traditions among the Indigenous peoples and nations of the Pacific Northwest Coast, including the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida. A good deal of individual clans’ history and broader cultural history was lost when European and Anglo-American newcomers, who began to arrive in the area in the 18th century, brought disease and misconceptions about the practices and traditions of the local Indigenous peoples and nations. Traders and colonizers destroyed or defaced totem poles incorrectly thought to be objects of religious worship.
• In the early 1970s, the combined efforts of Native elders, the Alaska State Museum, the Alaska Native Brotherhood, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Forest Service, and the City of Ketchikan brought surviving 19th-century totem poles to the Totem Heritage Center. The totem poles specifically came from former Tlingit villages on Tongass Island and Village Island and from the Haida village of Old Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island. While traditionally totem poles would be left at the spot where they were originally raised, and allowed to deteriorate so the wood would return to the earth, the poles at the Totem Heritage Center are preserved and used to teach future generations about the cultural practices of their communities.

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Bentwood boxes of the Northwest Coast peoples

Key points

• The Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast have long created storage boxes from the wood of local cedar trees. These bentwood boxes require significant time and skill to construct and are considered precious to the families that create, use, and preserve them across generations.
• The boxes can vary in size, but are consistently made from three pieces of wood that fit snugly together: the bottom, sides, and lid. The boxes are meant to be mobile and can hold food or clan items, such as regalia, blankets, or at.óowu (something special to the clan). Designs on the boxes may include the matrilineal family’s clan crest and complement other types of embellishments such as abalone shells or copper.
• European and Anglo-American newcomers began to arrive in the area in the 18th century, prompting substantial changes to the lives of Indigenous people and nations. Along with bringing disease and misconceptions about the practices of Native peoples, the newcomers’ presence led to increased tourism and burgeoning industries that drew heavily on local resources and provided new jobs. In this context, many Indigenous people relocated, including the move of Haida people from the village of Old Kasaan to New Kassan in the early 20th century. Families took their boxes with them when they moved.

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Tlingit sovereignty and the Proud Raven ("Lincoln") Pole

Key points

• For the Indigenous peoples and nations of southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State, totem poles convey the stories and status of the clans, or matrilineal families, that create them. All clans are members of one of a number of moieties, or groups within their community. Each moiety is represented by an animal such as the raven, eagle or wolf, and is indicated by the carving of that animal on a totem pole. Humans, animals, and supernatural beings are also carved on poles as crests; the particular combination of crests on a pole is unique to each clan. Crests reflect the stories of the clan ancestors’ interactions with the beings depicted, and remind family members about their heritage. On this clan crest pole, the raven at the base identifies the Gannax.ádi clan as part of the Raven moiety and the inclusion of the male figure at the top is a reference to the clan’s history of seeing the first white man in Tongass Tlingit territory.
• Oral history and sovereignty are of great importance to the Indigenous peoples and nations of the Pacific Northwest Coast. For the Gannax.ádi clan, the sighting of the first white man in the area in the 18th century (likely a European or Anglo-American fur trader) is evidence of the Tlingit claim to the land—they were there before the white newcomers. Raising the original version of this totem pole on Tongass Island a century later was an important reminder of Tlingit sovereignty following the U.S.’s recent purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The depiction of Abraham Lincoln on the pole was intended as a generic reference to the emergence of the white newcomer. For non-Native audiences, however, the inclusion of Lincoln on the pole was erroneously read as a memorial to the great leader and
  emancipator
  .
• Saxman Totem Park was one of six parks built between 1938 and 1942 as part of the U.S. government’s
  New Deal
  labor and cultural preservation programs, specifically emerging from the 1934
  Indian Reorganization Act
  . The federal government paid Tlingit and Haida men, as members of the
  Civilian Conservation Corps
  , to repair or recreate more than one hundred 19th-century totem poles from uninhabited Native villages in Southeast Alaska. This particular pole was one of the catalysts for the entire totem pole restoration program because of the appeal of the image of Abraham Lincoln to New Deal officials who perpetrated the false story of the pole being a memorial to the former president.

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Research project idea

The story of the Oyster Man, a Tlingit totem pole

Key points

• The Indigenous peoples and nations of southeast Alaska and the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State have long practiced the art of creating and erecting totem poles. The poles are carved from the logs of giant local cedar trees and then painted. Different types of totem poles include clan crest poles, mortuary or memorial poles, potlatch poles, and shame poles (and sometimes these overlap). Each serves a different purpose in the community.
• Totem poles emphasize the importance of oral and visual traditions among the Indigenous peoples and nations of the Pacific Northwest Coast. This memorial pole from the Nex.ádi clan of the Sanyaa Kwáan Tlingit visually recounts a story that reinforces the importance of knowledge being passed down to children from their matrilineal aunts and uncles.
• A good deal of individual clans’ history and broader cultural history was lost when European and Anglo-American newcomers, who began to arrive in the area in the 18th century, brought disease and misconceptions about the practices and traditions of the local Indigenous peoples and nations. Traders and colonizers destroyed or defaced totem poles incorrectly thought to be objects of religious worship, and many Native people left their villages for opportunities in newly emerging industries and towns.
• - Saxman Totem Park was one of six parks built between 1938 and 1942 as part of the U.S. government’s
  New Deal
  labor and cultural preservation programs, specifically emerging from the 1934
  Indian Reorganization Act
  . The federal government paid Tlingit and Haida men, as members of the
  Civilian Conservation Corps
  , to repair or recreate more than one hundred 19th-century totem poles from uninhabited Native villages in Southeast Alaska. This particular pole was removed from the village of Cape Fox and then recarved and placed at Saxman Totem Park.
• While traditionally totem poles would be left at the spot where they were originally raised, and allowed to deteriorate so the wood would return to the earth, the poles at Saxman and the other totem parks are preserved (frequently through recarving) to teach future Native generations as well as park visitors about the cultural practices of the local Indigenous communities.

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Paukeigope (Kiowa), Cradleboard

Key points

• The production and use of cradleboards in the Kiowa community reflect the longstanding importance of intergenerational knowledge sharing and communal work, notably in areas such as community history-keeping, child rearing, and the arts.
• This cradleboard also provides particular evidence of the history of the Kiowa during the late 19th century. The use of trade items as materials for the cradleboard points to Indigenous relations with Euro-American settlers in and around Oklahoma, where the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache reservation was located. The acquisition of the cradleboard by a museum suggests the necessity of selling treasured community items to survive the harsh conditions of reservation life. And, the specific designs in the beadwork likely correspond to the patterns used by Paukeigope’s ancestor, Kiowa Chief Dohasan (Little Bluff), in creating a battle tipi that recorded his experiences in armed conflicts in the mid-19th century.

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