MUSEUM news
Collecting Stories
BOSTON—On view from April 14, 2018 until March
10, 2019, Collecting Stories: Native American Art
explores the range of perspectives, motivations, and
voices involved in building the early holdings of Native
American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The
exhibition focuses on objects collected in the formative
years after 1876—the year the museum opened its
doors to the public. Many of these works of art were
donated by leaders of the MFA and members of New
England intellectual circles who traveled to the Great
Plains and Southwest, often inspired by period notions
of “authentic” Indian life. Highlights include an early
Navajo (Diné) wearing blanket dating from 1840–60,
a pair of important Eastern Woodlands moccasins from
the early nineteenth century, and a Plains roach, or
headpiece, made of deer and porcupine hair around
1880–85. Collecting Stories also examines how Euro
60
Americans encountered and represented Native
Americans in the late nineteenth century, illuminating
some of the historical and political contexts within
which the MFA’s collection developed.
ABOVE: Wearing blanket.
Navajo (Diné), American Southwest. 1840–60.
Wool weft-faced plain weave.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Denman Waldo Ross Collection.
First Americans
SANTA ANA—After a long journey during which it
was seen in venues around the world—from Bogotá
to several venues in China—the Bowers Museum’s
special exhibition featuring selections from its Native
American collection will fi nally be on view in its own
facility from April 7 until August 19, 2018. First
Americans: Tribal Art from North America includes
artwork representative of native peoples from the
Arctic North, the Northwest Coast, California, the
Southwest, and the Great Plains. Highlights include
what may be the earliest example of a transitional
Navajo First Phase chief‘s blanket, a particularly early
and fi ne Hopi katsina doll, a rare Seri feathered kilt
from Baja California, a Lakota eagle feather headdress,
and a Tlingit oystercatcher rattle.
The Ancient Americas
SACRAMENTO—For the fi rst time within the context
of its permanent collection, the Crocker Art Museum
has installed a gallery that showcases its Pre-Columbian
art collection. Most of the pieces on display are
recent gifts from historic American collections. While
the installation is intended to rotate, currently on view
RIGHT: Headdress.
Lakota, Great Plains.
C. 1900.
Golden eagle feathers, wool cloth,
cotton cloth, glass beads.
H: 57.5 cm.
Bowers Museum, gift of Mr. Jerry Stoll,
inv. F82.26.1.
BELOW: Rattle.
Tlingit, Fort Wrangell.
20th century.
Wood, paint, cedar twine. L: 35.6 cm.
Bowers Museum, John J. Burkhard
Family, inv. 89.34.1.