Crossroads of Culture: Anthropology Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

By Chip Colwell, Stephen E. Nash and Steven R. Holen

The hectic front of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science hides an unseen back of the museum that is also bustling. Less than 1 percent of the museum's collections are on display at any given time, and the Department of Anthropology alone cares for more than 50,000 objects from every corner of the globe not normally available to the public. This lavishly illustrated book presents and celebrates the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's exceptional anthropology collections for the first time.

The book presents 123 full-color images to highlight the museum's cultural treasures. Selected for their individual beauty, historic value, and cultural meaning, these objects connect different places, times, and people. From the mammoth hunters of the Plains to the first American pioneer settlers to the flourishing Hispanic and Asian diasporas in downtown Denver, the Rocky Mountain region has been home to a breathtaking array of cultures. Many objects tell this story of the Rocky Mountains' fascinating and complex past, whereas others serve to bring enigmatic corners of the globe to modern-day Denver.

Crossroads of Culture serves as a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum's anthropology collections. All the royalties from this publication will benefit the collections of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's Department of Anthropology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Release date: May 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781607320258

Book preview

CROSS ROADS of Culture

CROSS ROADS of Culture

Anthropology Collections at the DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

CHIP COLWELL-CHANTHAPHONH,

STEPHEN E. NASH, and STEVEN R. HOLEN

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF COLORADO

© 2010 by the University Press of Colorado and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Published by the University Press of Colorado

5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C

Boulder, Colorado 80303

All rights reserved

Printed in Canada

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip (John Stephen), 1975–

   Crossroads of culture : anthropology collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science / Chip Colwell-

Chanthaphonh, Stephen E. Nash, Steven R. Holen.

     p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-60732-024-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Denver Museum of Nature and Science—Ethnological collections.

2. Ethnological museums and collections—Colorado—Denver. I. Nash, Stephen Edward, 1964– II. Holen, Steven R., 1948– III. Title.

  GN36.U62D464 2009

  305.80074—dc22

                                                                                                                                                2010004736

Design by Daniel Pratt

1 9    1 8    1 7    1 6    1 5    1 4    1 3    1 2    1 1    1 0                   1 0    9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1

Photo credits—Plate 119: Alfred M. Bailey; Plate 55: Dave Baysinger; Plate 10: Jesse H. Bratley; Fig. 7: Ray Dennis; Fig. 8 and Plates 1–7, 9, 11–15, 17–21, 23, 26–28, 30, 33 (front), 34, 36, 38–46, 48–53, 56–107, 109, 112–114, 121: Scott Dressel-Martin; Fig. 2: Jesse Dade Figgins; Figs. 6, 10: Gary Hall; Fig. 1: J. W. Jackson; Plate 81 (illus.): Marc Levine; Plate 33 (historic photo): Fred E. Miller (courtesy of the Carroll and Nancy O’Conner Foundation); Plate 47: Lee Moorehouse; xvi, Plate 95 (illus.): Eric Parrish; Figs. 4, 12 and Plates 8, 16, 24–25, 29, 31, 33 (back), 37, 54, 108, 110–111, 115–118, 120, 122: Richard M. Wicker; Figs. 3, 5, 9, 11, 13 and Plates 22, 32, 35: unknown, DMNS archives

Contents

List of Figures

List of Plates

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE. One of the Great Institutions: An Introduction

CHAPTER TWO. American Ethnology Collection

CHAPTER THREE. American Archaeology Collection

CHAPTER FOUR. World Archaeology Collection

CHAPTER FIVE. World Ethnology Collection

CHAPTER SIX. Never Finished: The Anthropology Collections Today and Tomorrow

Notes

Index

Figures

1. The original museum building, ca. 1908

2. The Folsom site under excavation

3. H. Marie Wormington (1914–1994)

4. Mural from the Hall of the Prehistoric Peoples of the Americas

5. Mary W.A. Crane (1902–1982) and Francis V. Crane (1903–1968)

6a/b. Models for the Cheyenne diorama set in 1860

7. Tlingit items repatriated to the Lúkaax.ádi clan

8. Hopi cultural advisors Lee Wayne Lomayestewa and Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa

9. Ruth Underhill

10. Folsom point in situ

11. Archaeologists at the Dent site

12. A Mary Chilton Gray mural of a Folsom bison hunt

13. Dancers at the Spring Buffalo Feast and Honoring Ceremony

Plates

1. Painted jar by the artist Nampeyo (Hopi)

2. San Carlos Apache basket

3. Maidu basket tray from California

4. A Michael Calnimptewa (Hopi) Koyaala kachina doll

5. A line of four Hopi katsina spirits

6. Shell and turquoise necklace, by Joe Reano (Cochiti Pueblo)

7. Rawhide cards, attributed to Naipero (Tonto Apache)

8. Navajo wool American flag

9. Jicarilla Apache wedding basket

10. Hopi women from Supawlavi weaving basket plaques

11. San Carlos Apache basket

12. Tohono O’odham basket

13. Three Chumash baskets

14. Black-on-black vessel by Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso Pueblo)

15. Pueblo of Zia parfleche cylinder

16. The Navajo Blanket, an oil painting by E. Irving Couse

17. Navajo First Phase Chief’s blanket

18. Tlingit carved and painted bentwood box

19. Haida pipe carved in fine argillite

20. Haida miniature argillite totem poles

21. Tahltan copper dagger

22. Three Northwest Coast totem poles

23. Yupik ivory sculpture of polar bear and seal

24. An Evil Angagok, stone-cut print by Peter Morgan (Inuit)

25. Legend of Lumaaq, stone-cut print by Daniel Inukpuk (Inuit)

26. Mescalero Apache quiver

27. Southern Cheyenne dress

28. Jicarilla Apache outfit

29. A dance scene, lithograph by George Catlin

30. A Blackfoot hoop drum and stick

31. A bison hunt scene, lithograph by George Catlin

32. A mask for a horse, made by the Crow of Montana

33a/b/c. Sioux beaded vest depicting the Elk Dreamers Society

34a/b. Moccasins and pipe belonging to Buckskin Charlie (Ute)

35. Photograph of Buckskin Charlie (Ute)

36a/b. Thomas Jefferson peace medal

37. Diptych portrait of Wi-jun-jon (Assiniboine), lithograph by George Catlin

38a/b. The White Horse Winter Count (Cheyenne)

39. Captain William Clark’s telescope

40. Congolese dagger traded to the Ossipee-Passaconway tribe

41. Peyote box, painted by Archie Blackowl (Cheyenne)

42. A girl’s beaded dress of the Yanktonai Sioux

43. Morningstar quilt by Neva and Marie Standing Bear (Rosebud Sioux)

44. Osage frock coat

45a/b. Iroquois wampum belt

46. Cradleboard frame from the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation

47. Photograph of children bundled in cradleboards

48. Dolls depicting Chinese traditional dress, by a Winnebago artisan

49. Choctaw tray made of plaited cane

50. Onondaga (Iroquois) coat

51. Maya mask used in the Dance of Conquest

52a/b. Huipil, made and worn by a Maya woman from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

53. Bulto of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

54. Coin and glass-bead necklace from Guatemala

55. A hip-hop-style grillz, by the artist Eddie Plein

56. Shipibo ceramic jar

57. Amazonian feathered headdress made by a Karaja artisan

58. Two spear points from the Lone Wolf Creek site

59. Folsom spear point

60. Three spear points found associated with mammoth skeletons at the Dent site

61. Stone artifacts from the Lindenmeier Folsom site

62. Bone artifacts and stone beads from the Lindenmeier Folsom site

63. Fluted spear point preform

64. Stone artifacts from the Frazier site

65. Stone artifacts from the Jones-Miller bison kill

66. Clovis artifacts

67. Cores from the Easterday cache

68. Metate made of Lyons sandstone

69. Caddo jar

70. Caddo ceramic bowl

71. Salado Polychrome bowl

72. Salado Polychrome bowl

73. Yucca sandals, from the late Basketmaker period

74. Mimbres bowl

75. Split-twig figurine found in southwestern Colorado

76. Polychrome jar from Paquimé

77. Ceramic effigy incense-burner lid

78. Maya polychrome painted jaguar effigy funerary urn lid

79. Greenstone Olmec figurine

80. Maya ceramic and gold coyote

81a/b. Mirror backing from Veracruz, Mexico

82. Painted ceramic figurine from Jalisco, Mexico

83. Ceramic dog figurines from Colima and Guadalajara, Mexico

84. Cream-slipped ceramic figurines from Nayarit, Mexico

85. Urn representing the maize god from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

86. Ceramic urn

87. Painted serving vessel from Teotihuacan

88. Carved stone mask from Teotihuacan

89. Aztec stone-carved snake effigy

90. Basalt sculpture from Costa Rica

91. Chavin stirrup vessel from Peru

92. Gold ear ornaments worn by Calima elite, Colombia

93. Quero drinking vessels from the Andes

94. Bolivian copper tupu pin

95a/b. Carved shell bracelets

96. Stone ballgame yoke

97. Mixtec ballgame equipment

98. Acheulean hand axe

99. Cuneiform tablet

100. Wood coffin lid from the city of Thebes in Upper Egypt

101. Greek amphora, possibly painted by the Antimenes Painter

102. Gourd canteen made and used by the !Kung San

103. Bronze figurines made by the Dan of Liberia

104. A Ndebele apron for pubertal girls (South Africa)

105. Headdress from West Kasai, Zaire, worn by a Luba chief

106. Katanga crosses, or Kuba cross currency

107. Yoruba helmet mask

108. Bisht from Saudi Arabia

109. Steel machete used by the Garo of India

110. Prayer flag of the Dai, southern China

111. Chinese embroidered silk shoes

112. Japanese ivory and steel dagger and scabbard

113. Shawl made by a weaver of the Karen people of Thailand

114. Story cloth made by Mr. and Mrs. Nhia Thao Cha (Hmong)

115a/b. Jacket of the Lahu Shi of Thailand

116. Headdress of the Akha of Thailand

117. Betel-nut box from Burma

118. Carrying bag from Papua New Guinea

119. Photograph of Australian men returning from hunt

120. Bark painting by the artist