Eastern Woodlands of North America
- Comments
-
Glasgow Museums has a collection of 136 objects associated with the North American eastern woodlands which date mostly from the early 19th century to the present. This collection predominantly comprises decorated hide costume, bags and other containers but also includes masks, ritual apparatus, clothing, hunting equipment, models, craft items, souvenirs and prehistoric stone tools, the latter mostly from Indiana. The hide costume is mostly decorated with porcupine quillwork, moose hair embroidery or beadwork, although there are also three rarer painted pieces, two of which are coats. The first acquisition to North American collections as a whole was a pair of snowshoes from Canada donated by James McNair in 1870 which, along with other early items, reflects the connections Scotland had with the subcontinent in the late 19th and early 20th century, when Scots migrated to northern Canada, most often to work for the Hudson Bay Company. The collection also holds several commissioned works of contemporary embroidered beadwork from Canadian First Nations and Native American peoples. The Eastern woodlands is a cultural area, broadly covering the territory of the original 13 states ceded by Great Britian in 1783, which encompassed many indigenous North American tribes including the Cherokee, Iroquois and Algonquin.
- Broader term