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German Collections from the American Revolution

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The second half of the eighteenth century was an impor- liable documentation), no less than about 250 artifacts tant period in the protohistory of anthropology as well as have been preserved of those collected in northwestern in the history of ethnographic collecting. After more than North America on Cook’s Third Voyage during a few two centuries of European expansion into other parts of weeks in the spring of 1778 (Feest 1992; 1993: 6–7; 1995a: the world, the enormous mass of observational data on 324; 1995b: 111–112). the manners and customs of a wide variety of peoples, The same period also saw far-reaching changes in the which had been accumulated more or less randomly, political and cultural map of northeastern North Ameri- begged to be compared, classified, and explained. In the ca. France lost its North American colonies at the end of short run, Joseph François Lafitau’s comparative ap- the French and Indian wars, and England some of its proach of 1724 was less influential (partly, no doubt, be- American possessions in the course of the American Rev- cause his book was not translated into English for nearly olution. This in turn led to the physical and political re- 250 years) than Carl Linné’s Systema naturae (1735), whose alignment of considerable portions of the Native popula- taxonomic scheme was adapted to the needs of a classifi- tion of the Northeast. A better understanding of these catory interest in peoples and their cultures. It was the cre- processes as they affected the indigenous peoples of this ation of terms descriptive of the subject matter (such as region will ultimately have to be based on an analysis of “culture”) and—in the context of a proposed Systema pop- the historical-ethnographic record of this period, the ulorum—of the discipline itself (i.e., “ethnography” and its knowledge of which is still far from adequate—and this equivalents) by German historians and lexicographers in notably includes the evidence supplied by artifacts. the 1770s, which ultimately established a quickly recog- The present paper will discuss artifacts collected by nized new field of discourse (cp., e.g., Vermeulen 1992). German mercenaries during the American Revolution On the three circumnavigations of Captain James within the framework just outlined. These Germans are Cook and on other voyages of the Enlightenment, the often collectively referred to as “Hessians,” because two Linnean principles were first applied to the collecting of thirds of the approximately 30,000 soldiers leased by King ethnographic data in general and of artifacts in particular. George III from impoverished and/or greedy German petty In the wake of this development, the old mode of the princes for the better protection of his American posses- Kunst- and Wunderkammer with its emphasis on the un- sions did in fact come from the two principalities of usual and its disregard for provenance and contextual in- Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau. Four other principalities, formation gave way to a new ethnographic paradigm of however, were also involved, with Brunswick sending near- collecting, in which peoples (and thus provenance) pro- ly 6,000 of its men, Bayreuth-Anspach 2,300, and both vided the primary taxa. These newly defined goals of col- lecting along with the establishment of separate ethno- Christian F. Feest is Director of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Wien, graphic collections (generally within natural history cabi- Austria. His published work on Native American history, anthropology, 2 nets) led to a rapid increase in the number of artifacts and art includes Native Arts of North America ( 1992), Indians and Europe (ed., 21999), Sitting Bull. “Der letzte Indianer” (ed., 1999), The Cultures of both collected and preserved. While there presently exist Native North Americans (ed., 2000), and Indian Times. Nachrichten aus dem just about 150 artifacts from North America definitively roten Amerika (ed., 2002). Author’s address: Museum für Völkerkunde, Neue Burg, A-1010 Wien, known to have been collected prior to 1750 (and perhaps Austria. an about equal number from the same period without re- E-mail: [email protected]

44 Fig. 2 Undated drawing (ca. 1780) from the troop diary of the Hesse- Hanau Riflemen Corps, depicting a French-Canadian sled “Carriole” with its thill (“Travail”), and an indigenous snowshoe (“Raquette”), pipe tomahawk (“Casse-tête”), and painted bison skin (“Peau de Buffle”). After Auerbach (1996: 319).

Fig. 1 “The Indian Warrior.” Engraving after a drawing by Major August Wilhelm. Du Roi in Zimmermann (1804: frontispiece). The war- tivities in the St. Lawrence River valley (Eelking 1863, rior is identified as a Sioux, the figures in the background as a Mohawk Lowell 1970). and a French-Canadian peasant (Zimmermann 1804: 381). While the published diaries of the mercenary soldiers reflect a general interest both in the indigenous and Waldeck and Anhalt-Zerbst 1,200 each.1 Of these various French-Canadian population and their material culture troops, the contingents from Hesse-Kassel and Bayreuth- (including some drawings2 of persons and artifacts; see Anspach had few if any direct contacts with Native peo- Figs. 1, 2), they provide only limited evidence for the ac- ples, while the Waldeckers had mostly rather transient en- tual process of collecting in the field. Baron von Closen, counters with Creeks, Chickasaws, and others during for example, describes a gift exchange in 1780 with a del- their sojourn in Florida and Louisiana. Close to 10,000 egation vom Kahnawake, in which in return for “blankets, soldiers from Brunswick, Hesse-Hanau, and Anhalt-Zerb- knives, and other objects of hardware, ... they left us ... st, however, were exposed to sustained contacts with a va- their sandals, belts, and many other trinkets, also some riety of local and foreign Native peoples during their ac- scalps” (Acomb 1958: 39). A less ceremonial manner of appropriation is described by Anton Adolf Du Roi of the Brunswick regiment of Col. Specht; upon their first land- 1. In addition, a German contingent from Zweibrücken (Deux-Ponts) fall at a Micmac village in New Brunswick, temporarily de- was involved in the American Revolution from 1780–1783 as part of the French expeditionary force under General Rochambeau (Acomb 1958). serted by its inhabitants, the soldiers saw “baskets and 2. The drawing, upon which the engraving in Fig. 1 was based, is now drinking vessels artificially made of birchbark, which not missing from a set of drawings of military uniforms by A. W. Du Roi in the Stadtarchiv Braunschweig. Other drawings of ethnographic interest to take with us we were unable to refrain from because of include two “Canadian Indians” drawn on 29 August 1780 in Newport, their rarity” (Teuscher 1983: 88). In 1778, Capt. Johann Rhose Island, by Baron Ludwig von Closen of Zweibrücken (Acomb Heinrichs of the Kassel Riflemen reported the loss of his 1958: 265), and “An Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe” (1779) by Johann Ewald of the Hesse-Kassel Riflemen Corps (Tustin 1979: 149). Al- baggage, including “an Indianbow, arrows, a net for catch- though captioned in German, a watercolor drawing of a Huron man ing birds, scalp dagger, knife, etc, and other curiosities. and an Abenaki woman now in Brunswick (Harrison et al. 1987a: 69), was part of a series of French-Canadian drawings produced in the 1770s. That I was exceedingly displeased with this mishap, you

45 Fig. 3 Burden strap with moosehair false embroidery, St. Lawrence River valley, ca. 1775. HLMD cat.no. 1842.200. Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt). This piece is unusual because it is the only one of more than fifty examples of this type on record that is edged with white imitation wampum—a characteristic feature of artifacts of the period of the American Revolution. Linked pairs of diamonds are more commonly found in wampum and imitation wampum work (cp. Fig. 11; but see Stephenson 2007: fig. 1, ex Sotheby’s 1982: lot 100, ex K. Schindler coll.). may easily imagine, because I intended enriching the Cab- Ledermuseum, Offenbach. They include two burden- inet of our celebrated Dr. Dolten with my acquisitions. straps with moosehair false embroidery (Fig. 2 and Völger Still I have a few curiosities remain with me” (Heinrichs 1976: no. 4.30.21; cp. note 4 below), two canoe models 1898: 144–145). (Fig. 3), a toboggan and a cradle board model, an “Iro- Significant ethnographic collections, whose ultimate quois headdress” (Fig. 12), three pairs of moccasins, and fate largely remains to be reconstructed, were thus assem- a quilled knifecase (Völger 1976: no. 4.20.34). The earli- bled in the course of these encounters. Some of the ma- est documentary record for most of them are catalog num- terial quickly entered the cabinets of the local princes, bers assigned in 1842. While they are here attributed to which were then on the verge of becoming public muse- the time of the American Revolution on the basis of their ums. A few pieces appear to have enriched the recently es- style, it should be noted that the collection included other tablished ethnographic collection of the Academic Muse- early objects from North America (such as Naskapi cloth- um at the University of Göttingen3—the place were the ing), which cannot be linked to the Hessian mercenaries. word “ethnography” had just been coined by August Lud- Of another possibly seven pieces from Darmstadt identi- wig Schlözer, who also published several of the reports fied in the Speyer collection (Sturtevant 2001: 174 and sent from North America by German officers and field notes 33–34), most or all may likewise have been collect- curates (Schlözer 1778–1779). Other objects became part ed during the American Revolution. of collections elsewhere in Germany, especially because ser- This leaves us with Brunswick as the primary source of viceable men from other principalities were also recruited documentary evidence for the collecting activities of the or impressed. The largest number may have remained in German mercenaries. On this basis, it is possible to attempt the families of those who had safely returned, to be dis- some further identification of material now in other posed of by later generations, who either discarded them, repositories. gave them to local museums, or sold them to private col- The Brunswick regiments arrived in Canada during lectors. Oral traditions and scraps of documentary evi- the summer and fall of 1776 and took up quarters near dence allow us to identify Arthur Speyer (the second in Trois Rivières between Québec and Montreal. They par- three generations of dealers/collectors of that name) and ticipated in the campaigns against the rebels in New York, Patty Frank, the later director of the Karl-May-Museum in until they were decisively beaten by the Americans at Radebeul, as the most notable beneficiaries of such trans- Saratoga in October 1777, taken captive, and removed to actions in the 1920s and 1930s (cp. Sturtevant 2001: 163 camps in New England and Virginia. Only two regiments fn. 2). The fact that neither of them kept adequate records of these acquisitions is highly unfortunate. The same is 3. Some of these early pieces may have been traded from the ethno- true of the museums which deaccessioned Revolutionary graphic collection of the University of Göttingen to the Speyer collec- War material in the course of their dealings with Speyer tion. A pipe tomahawk still in Göttingen (cat.no. Am 432a; Fig. 5) has no known collection history (“old collection”), but is identical with the and Frank. two pipe tomahawks now in the municipal museum in Brunswick Of the two museums which apparently were the major (Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig, hereinafter “SMB”). early recipients of collections,4 the Ducal Museum (now 4. Related artifacts may have entered a number of other collections, such as the Academic Museum in Göttingen, the Royal collection in Hessian State Museum) in Darmstadt was bombed out Munich, the Ducal museum in Gotha, and possibly others, but docu- during World War II and lost all of its old inventories.5 mentation for such transfers is poor or completely lacking. 5. The earliest guide to the present Hessisches Landesmuseum (here- Eleven pieces from the Darmstadt collection survived be- inafter “HLMD”), published in 1818 (Pauli 1818), makes no reference to cause they were on permanent loan to the Deutsches the material under discussion, which is first noted in Walther (1844).

46 Fig. 4 Painted model of a birchbark canoe with cloth sail. Probably Abenaki, Trois Rivières, ca. 1775. HLMD no cat.no. Photograph: C. F. Feest (cour- tesy of Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt). escaped this fate and (together with later reinforcements) of objects given to the Brunswick State Museum around continued in the St. Lawrence valley. 1920. These had been collected by Major August Wilhelm Local Native contacts were especially with the Mo- Du Roi and sent to his brother in October 1777 from “Fort hawks at Kahnawake, the Algonquins at Lac-de-Deux- Charles on the Chambley [Richelieu] River”; but the ac- Montagnes and Point-du-Lac, the Abenakis at Odanak companying list identifies the pieces only as parts of the and Bécancour, and the Hurons at Nouvelle Lorette (Ep- “outfit of a savage” (Kasprycki 1997: 69). ping 1911: 38, 45–46; cp. Phillips in Harrison et al. The total number of artifacts collected by Brunswick 1987a: 69); but they also frequently encountered other al- mercenaries which thus entered the local museums is at lies of the English, such as Joseph Brant’s Mohawks least 55; of these, 38 can still be identified. The following (Riedesel 1989: 233–234), Micmacs, Ottawas, Ojibwas, Fox, selection (augmented by pieces from other German Kickapoos (Epping 1911: 38, 47), and even Dakotas (Fig. 1). repositories of a likely Revolutionary War origin) faithful- A late eighteenth-century inventory of the Ducal Mu- ly reflects the composition of these collections, their seum in Brunswick lists thirty-seven American items appar- strengths and weaknesses, the availability of certain arti- ently received from returned mercenaries. This inventory fact types, and the apparent selective principles employed offers a tribal attribution for only one piece, and it like- by the collectors. Fourteeen objects—roughly a quarter of wise does not identify the individual collectors. During the documented pieces—are items of dress and orna- the second half of the nineteenth century, the Municipal ment, with moccasins making up the vast majority. Seven Museum of Brunswick received fourteen artifacts collected others are bags and pouches for personal use. I will later in 1776–1777 by Lieutenant Johann Ludolph Unger, as discuss this group of generally quilled leather artifacts in well as a few individual pieces which for stylistic reasons some more detail, as also the second large group, which is must likewise have been collected at that time. In 1899 made up of sixteen items of moosehair-embroidered most of the ethnographic pieces still surviving at the birchbark. Ducal Museum were transferred to the municipal muse- Like the moosehair pieces, the various models of cra- um. The best documentation is available for a small group dle boards, toboggans, and canoes were clearly products

47 Fig. 6 Frame drum, identified at the time of its acquisition by the museum as one of two “Indian army kettle drums.” SMB cat.no. 87 (Unger coll.). Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig). Fig. 5 Miniature cradleboard, painted wood, cloth, cotton, glass beads, probably part of canoe model. SMB cat.no. 208 (ex HAUM 1271). Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig). 6. Of two cradleboard models once in the Ducal museum (now Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, hereinafter “HAUM”), only one sur- for the early tourist trade, but they also illustrate the do- vived to be transferred to the SMB; a pair of snowshoes (HAUM cat.no. main of transportation, which in addition was represent- 1268) also did not survive until 1899 and may likewise have been a model only. Two models of toboggans (SMB cat.nos AIVb 209a, b 6 ed by snowshoes. The cradleboard model in Brunswick [HAUM cat.nos 1269–1270] are plain and without attached burden- (Fig. 5) closely resembles one in Darmstadt and another straps; a similar model from Darmstadt (HLMD cat.no. 1842.444) has one formerly in the Speyer collection, which was identi- a painted design and includes a burdenstrap decorated with imitation wampum glass beads. All these models were probably parts of furnish- fied as from the Algonquins of Lac-de-Deux-Montagnes; it ings of canoe models (cp. Brasser 1976: 134, #123; Phillips and Idiens is quite unlike another one from the Speyer collection 1994: fig. 1). 7. A “River Desert Algonkin (Maniwaki)” cradleboard model collect- 7 with the inscribed provenance “Jeune Lorette.” ed before 1779, formerly in the Speyer collection (Benndorf and Speyer The same attribution was offered by Benndorf and 1968: 75, Abb. 41) and now in Berlin (cat.no. IVB 12815) is also much Speyer (1968: 75, Abb. 41) for a birchbark canoe model like the ones in Brunswick and Darmstadt (no cat.no.; erroneously dated in Völger [1976: 4.30.24] to “ca. 1880”). Since the Algonquins of and accompanying dolls8 which are virtually identical Lake of Two Mountains moved to Maniwaki Reserve only in 1854 (Day with those from Brunswick, although Brasser (1976: 134, 1978: 790), the “River Desert” attribution apparently represents an attempt by Benndorf and Speyer to translate an original “Lake of Two #123) later preferred to call the Speyer piece a “Maliseet Mountains” provenance into modern terms. For the “Jeune Lorette” type.” While the Speyer and Brunswick dolls (and proba- model, see Benndorf and Speyer (1968: 62, Abb. 29). bly also the canoes) must have been made by the same per- 8. Two birchbark canoe models with two and four dolls, respectively, were transferred in 1899 from the HAUM (cat.nos. 1267, 1266) to the son, another model sent by the Huron and Abenaki as a SMB (cat.nos. AIVb 213–214), but only the latter and two of the dolls votive offering to the cathedral in Chartres (cat.no. 11405; have survived. Phillips (1999: 82–86, pl. 7; Phillips and Idiens 1994: 24–25, fig. 1, 33 n. 19), who identifies these models as Ursuline convent Harrison et al. 1987a: frontispiece; Phillips in Harrison et work, illustrates an example from the Farquharson collection and refers al. 1987b: 54, #W77; Joubeaux 2002: 92–93) and anoth- to several other specimens in public and private collections, including er one in the Farquharson collection (Phillips and Idiens one from the Ducal collection in Darmstadt (no cat.no.; misattributed by Völger 1976: 4.20.12 to the “Naskapi, ca. 1850”). The Speyer collec- 1994: 25, fig. 1) are broadly similar, but not identical; yet tion featured additional dolls from another such canoe model, said to have another similar but unpainted model, collected in Trois been collected before 1779 among the “River Desert Algonkin” (Benn- dorf and Speyer 1968: 74–75, Abb. 41), which are virtually identical with Rivières in 1799, is in the Musée d’Ethnographie, Neuchâ- the dolls in Brunswick. See also the stylistically different dolls from tel (cat.no. IV30; Grimes et al. 2002: 80; for additional ex- “Jeune Lorette” formerly in the Speyer collection and now in the amples, see Phillips and Idiens 1994: 33 n. 19 20). Canadian Museum of Civilization (Benndorf and Speyer 1968: 62, – Abb. 29), which are accepted by Phillips (1999: 86, fig. 3.10) as early Absent from the Brunswick collections are twined examples of Native work.

48 Fig. 7 Pipe with long wooden stem with incised designs and white glass bead inlays, partly wrapped with plaited quill bands; the grey stone head depicting a bird’s head facing the smoker also has white glass bead Fig. 8 Pipe tomahawk with steel-edged brass blade. Völkerkunde- inlays. HAUM cat.no. 1262. Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Herzog Sammlung, Universität Göttingen, cat.no. Am 432a (“old collection”). Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig). Photograph: C. F. Feest. burdenstraps with moosehair false embroidery. Of two ex- Ceremonialism is represented by two frame drums amples presumably collected by Hessian mercenaries and (Fig. 5) and a long-stemmed tobacco pipe (Fig. 6), while now in Darmstadt, one (HLMD cat.no. E 29:4) is very three other pipes were apparently made for non-ceremo- closely related to the 1746 “Kahnawake” prisoner tie in nial use. The drums10 were published nearly a century ago the Deerfield Memorial Hall Museum (Grimes et al. by Richard Andree (1899), who tentatively identified them 2002: 79; Flynt 2004: 53–55, fig. 5)9 and is also probably as Algonquian, which in a broad sense is probably correct; of Mohawk origin. This may be equally true of a second the pipe seems to be of Western Great Lakes origin.11 one (HLMD cat.no. 1842.200; Fig. 3), although the possi- The domain of war, which one should think was of ble stylistic differences between various groups of makers in special importance to the soldiers, is only represented by the St. Lawrence River valley are still little understood. two scalps and three pipe tomahawks. The scalps are among the earliest specimens preserved in museum col- lections;12 the type of tomahawk with a steel-edged brass 9. See also Krickeberg (1954: 156, Taf. 35b), Völger (1976: 4.30.21), blade was only briefly popular during the late eighteenth and Phillips (in Harrison et al. 1987b: 49, #W55). 10. The drums are from the Unger collections, and thus were not (as century (Woodward 1946: 13; Peterson 1965: 36–37, Berlo and Phillips [1998: 92] claim) part of the Kunstkammer of Duke 122–124, figs. 209–219; cp. Fig. 8).13 Most remarkable is Anton Ulrich, which, however, according to the late-eighteent century the absence of wooden clubs.14 inventory of the Ducal Museum did include another “so-called Indian magic drum. It is said to be covered witz himan skin.” The only piece for which the records supply a tribal 11. There are also two pottery pipe heads at the municipal museum in identification is problematic on two accounts. One is that Brunswick, and a stone pipe head at the Brunswick State Museum. 12. One scalp each is from the old Ducal collection (SMB cat.no. AIVb the description in the eighteenth-century inventory does 210, HAUM cat.no. 1264) and from the Unger collection (SMB cat.no. not completely match the object it is presently identified AIVb 92). The oldest scalp preserved in a museum appears to be an with: “The dress of a Huron. It is made of moose hide, example from the Sloan collection in the British Museum (King 1999: 60, fig. 56). Another eighteenth-century scalp in Cambridge is attached garnished with marten fur and has ornaments made of to a club (King 1993: 45, fig. 22). the bast of feather quills.”15 While the quills are clearly 13. As in the case of the scalps, one each is from the old Ducal collec- tion and from the Unger collection (SMB cat.no. AIVb 29 [Unger]; those of the porcupine, this is a lesser concern, since por- AIVb 207 [HAUM cat.no. 1263). See also Benndorf and Speyer (1968: cupine quills are frequently misidentified in early muse- 94), Ewing (1982: 147, #118), and the piece now in Göttingen (Fig. 8; um records. More serious is the lack of any trace of cp. note 3). A different type, with screw--on bowl is in the Du Roi col- lection (Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, hereinafter “BLM,” cat.no. marten fur, which probably rules out its identity with the VM 7248). item described in the catalogue. The second problem is 14. A possible exception is a ball-headed club, now in Gatineau (III-X- 236), presumably from the late eighteenth-/early nineteenth century the unlikelihood of the Huron attribution, based on what Blumenbach collection in Göttingen (Sturtevant 2001: 178). we know about nineteenth-century styles. While the piece 15. SMB cat.no. AIVb 218 (HAUM 1247). Among the lost dress items is unusually interesting and—given the diversity of west- was a “pair of arm or leg bands plaited of colored quills and decorated with small fringes of hair in sheet metal cones” (HAUM cat.no. 1249). ern allies who made their appearance in the St. Lawrence

49 Fig. 9 Single moccasin with appliqué quillwork (SMB no cat.no, ex HAUM cat.no. 1253) in style similar to the left knife case in Fig. 10, attributed to the Abenaki. Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Städti- sches Museum, Braunschweig).

Fig. 11 Two quilled knife cases and a birchbark insert found in the left specimen. Schlossmuseum, Gotha, cat.nos 1830.264, 265. Photograph: C. F. Feest.

tified with better known early nineteenth-century moc- Fig. 10 Moccasins with bands of woven quillwork edged with white glass beads (SMB no cat.no, ex HAUM cat.no. 1251). Photograph: C. F. casin styles of the area. Based on the quillwork style and Feest (courtesy of Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig). patterns, I would suggest an Abenaki origin for one (Fig. 9),17 and an Iroquois origin for another pair18 from the valley—could possibly have been collected during the ducal collection. Revolutionary War, it more likely represents a later, un- A third pair (Fig. 10) from the same source19 has bands documented addition to the Ducal collection. of woven quillwork, often associated with the Huron, but Of equally uncertain origin is a single painted legging the technique and style had, of course, a much wider dis- in the municipal museum, which was received in 1897 without any documentation (but together with eigh- 16. SMB AIVb 179 (purchased in 1897; the accompanying pieces of teenth-century moosehair work on bark). It is stylistically moosehair-embroidered birchbark had old, but unidentified catalogue early and rather unique.16 An apron from the Patty Frank numbers). 17. SMB no cat.no. (ex HAUM cat.no. 1253); cp. e.g., a spectacular collection in the Karl-May-Museum is also undocumented pair in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, cat.no. 1952.5.3. (Dräger, Krusche, Hoffmann 1992: 31, 49), but the pres- 18. No cat.no. (ex HAUM cat.no. 1250, possibly Iroquois). Other moc- casin styles are represented by SMB cat.nos. AIVb 82 and 83 (the latter ence of imitation wampum glass beads clearly places it completely undecorated, both from the Unger coll.), and no cat.no. (ex into the time period of the Revolutionary War. There are HAUM cat.no. 1250). For three further pairs at the HAUM and one at only few comparable examples and these have never actu- the BLM, only catalogue entries are still available. 19. SMB no cat.no. (ex HAUM cat.no. 1251). An unusual feature of ally been compared. this pair is the absence of bands of appliqué quillwork flanking the Six of the ten documented pairs of moccasins in woven strips. In this it resembles cat.no. III-H-440 of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, QC, and another broadly comparable Brunswick have survived and not unexpectedly represent pair from the old “Indian chamber” in the Staatliches Museum für several different styles, none of which can be securely iden- Völkerkunde Dresden (cat.no. 2953).

50 Fig. 12 Feathered headdress with quill-wrapped and -plaited decorative bands. Note the use of mallard skins underneath the arched central bands and the use of metal clasps in the lat- ter’s construction. HLMD cat.no. E30:11. Photograph: C. F. Feest (cour- tesy of Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt). tribution. This particular pair has a design identical with camp at the Richelieu River. A rather different type is rep- that found on Sir John Caldwell’s moccasins, now in an resented by a sheath from the old collection in Darm- American private collection (Ewing 1982: 255, #268; cp. stadt, which has a Latin label in presumably eighteenth- Brasser 1976: cover)—whatever that may ultimately mean. century handwriting, identifying it as the case for an Iro- A similar diversity is found among the surviving knife- quois scalping knife.20 One has, of course, to recognize cases. Du Roi’s fairly simple example (BLM cat.no. VM that “Iroquois” was as generic a term in the eighteenth 7249), edged with imitation wampum, was sent from a century as “Sioux” would be in the nineteenth. Two other knifecases in Gotha were presumably also collected at the time of the American Revolution (Fig. 11; 20. The Darmstadt knife case—which is only quilled and not beaded— has the old number [E29:]3. The inscription reads: “Vagina, quam collo Feest 1987: 290–296, color plate). One of them features suspensano habent Indi Iroquaeenses, continendo pugione quo secant the very narrow bands of quillwork associated with Abe- & avellant capillitum derrotorum, belli trophaeum, ex pennis hystricis confecta”; Völger (1976: 4.20.34) misattributes it to the “Northern naki work(wo)manship; and both are associated in the Algonquin, ca. 1820.” oldest surviving inventory with moosehair-embroidered 21. The two Gotha knife cases appear together on an 1830 inventory in birchbark specifically said to have been obtained from the numerical sequence with a moosehair-embroidered reticule, a billet-fold, 21 and a case for scissors, all of them said to have been obtained from the “Abinakis at Trois Rivières.” I have elsewhere argued “Abinakis at Trois Rivières.” The birchbark artifacts and at least the against the traditional, but unfounded attribution of knife case hgere attributed to the Abenaki also appeared together on a pre-1804 inventory referred to by the later catalogue. knifecases with quill-wrapped bark slats to the Mohawk, 22. Although citing the paper in which I presented a case against an and have suggested a more northern or western origin Iroquoian attribution of two-lane quill-plaited knife cases, and without (Feest 1987: 296).22 The quill-plaiting characteristic of this offering any new and convincing arguments, Phillips and Idiens (1994: 28–29, fig. 6) persist in perpetuating what I believe to be an erroneous type is also found on headdresses, such as the one from attribution. Darmstadt (Fig. 12).23 23. The Darmstadt headdress (cat.no. E 30: 11) is called “Iroquoian” in an early printed guide to the museum (Walther 1844). Although it Two quilled drawstring pouches in the Du Roi and represents a clearly distinct subtype, it is obviously related to other eigh- Unger collections and one formerly in the Ducal Museum teenth-century headdresses with quill-wrapped and -plaited bands, such in Darmstadt have been placed in a wider comparative as the one from the Caldwell collection (cp. Brasser 1976: cover), iden- tified by Benndorf and Speyer (1968: 94–96, Taf. XI) as Ojibwa. Further perspective by Sylvia Kasprycki (1997). She suggests a examples are in the Farquharson collection (Phillips and Idiens 1994: Western Abenaki origin for the Du Roi piece, and at least 30–31, fig. 9; attributed by them to the eastern Ojibwa [Mississauga]) and in the University Museum of Anthropology, Cambridge (cat.no. does not want to exclude the same provenance for the 1922.979, ex Leverian Museum; King 1993: 38–39, fig. 13). The range other two, whose quillwork styles closely resemble that of of styles of Eastern Great Lakes feathered headbands is further illustrat- the Gotha knifecase from Trois Rivières. ed by the examples shown by Idiens (2007: figs. 5, 6) and Einhorn and Abler 1996). Another bag from the Du Roi set is distinguished by

51 Fig. 13 Birchbark base of reticule with moosehair embroidery (SMB cat.no. AIVb 77, ex Köckys coll.). Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig).

113, fig. 4.7, 117, fig. 4.10, pl. 14). It is characterized by solid white backgrounds and a vivid pictorialism. Ruth

Fig. 13 Rectangular buckskin and cloth pouch decorated with appliqué quillwork and imitation wampum glass beads (BLM cat.no. 24. Closely comparable examples are in the British Museum (cat.no. VM 7250, ex Du Roi coll.). Photograph: C. F. Feest (courtesy of Braun- schweigisches Landesmuseum). Ethno 1878.11-1.625, S. R. Meyrick coll., no provenance; King 1982: 66–67, fig. 72a), in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg (cat.no. 1901-6, transferred from the Russian Geographical Society in 1889, no provenance; cp. Zibert 1975: 23–24, 30, Tab. 2.4), its extensive use of imitation wampum beads (Fig. 13).24 and in the Peabody Museum, Harvard University (cat.no. 288, said to Both myself (Feest 1980: 120) and Ruth Phillips (in Harri- be from Quebec, donated in 1792 to the Massachusetts Historical Society by a Mr. Freeman). Similar straps on different types of pouches son et al. 1987a: 85; 1987b: 48, #W50) have identified are found in the Musée du quai Branly, Paris (cat.no. 71.1878.32.142, this as Iroquoian. While this is still possible, I am less con- Bibliothèque Nationale coll., with a documented eighteenth-century vinced of this attribution than I was twenty years ago; ar- date), in the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle et d’Ethnographie, Lille (cat. no. 999-2-3316, no documentation), in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et chaeological evidence indicates that at least among the d’Archéologie de Besançon (cat.nos. 853.50.74–75, undocumented, but Seneca green beads were apparently rare or absent (Wray associated with eighteenth-century material from French North America; Lagrange and Dubois 1992: 110), and in the Musée d’Ethnographie, 1983). Geneva (cat.no. K437, Dunand coll., no provenance, acquired in 1874), A particular strength of the Brunswick collections all of which favor an origin within the French sphere of influence in from the American Revolution are moosehair-embroidered northeastern North America. The linked pairs of diamonds are interpreted on Iroquois wampum pieces of birchbark.25 As on the unusual two knifecases belts to refer to unity and friendship, but the design is equally found on from the Unger collection (cp. Phillips 1991: 20, fig. 2; non-Iroquoian belts as well as on non-ceremonial items in many parts of the Great Lakes region. 1999: 112, fig. 4.6), purely floral and pictorial styles ap- 25. The material presently available in Brunswick includes two knife pear side by side, both of which are commonly identified cases (SMB cat.nos AIVb 85, 90, Unger coll.), seven reticule bottoms (of which only two have a documented eighteeenth-century provenance: as Huron work, although the styles were obviously more SMB cat.no. AIVb 211 [HAUM cat.no. 1273] and HAUM cat.no. 1274; widespread. the remaining five were acquired between 1866 and 1897 apparently More importantly, Brunswick has one of the largest from descendants of soldiers who had served in America: SMB cat.nos AIVb 8 [ex Röbber-Hantelmann coll.], 77–78 [ex Köckys coll.], 180–181 collections of moosehair-embroidered birchbark of a style [no collection information]), and four pieces of unfinished work that did not survive into the nineteenth century and is (HAUM cat.no. 1281; cp. Phillips 1999: 110, fig. 4.4). Losses of eigh- teenth-century material previously at the HAUM (cat.nos 1275–1280) most often found on the bottom of women’s reticules include a box, a heart-shaped pouch, a scissors case, a case for glasses, (Fig. 14; also Phillips 1991: 23, fig. 6; cp. Phillips 1999: and two hearts (perhaps pin cushions).

52 Phillips (1991; 1999: 104–109), building upon the research Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. Phillips by Marius Barbeau, concludes that most of these works 1998 Native North Americn Art. Oxford History of Art. Ox- were produced in the Ursuline convents at Trois Rivières ford—New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Brasser, T. J. and (later) Quebec City; but the transition to unques- 1976 Bo’jou Neejee: Profiles of Canadian Indian Art. Ottawa, tionably Native moosehair-embroidered birchbark is diffi- ON: National Museum of Man. cult to understand without the assumption of a gradual Day, Gordon involvement of Native women throughout the eighteenth 1978 Nipissing. In: B. Trigger (ed.), Northeast (Handbook of century. North American Indians 15, W. C. Sturtevant, gen.ed.; This cursory glance at German collections from the Washington, DC), 87–91. Dräger, Lothar, Rolf Krusche, and K. Hoffmann time of the American Revolution has illustrated the tran- 1992 Indianer Nordamerikas. München: K. M. Lipp Verlag. sition from the old Kunst- und Wunderkammer collect- Eelking, Max von ing to the new contextual and taxonomic mode which at 1863 Die deutschen Hülfstruppen im nordamerikanischen Be- least in theory became prevalent after the second half of freiungskriege 1776–1783. 2 vols. Hannover. the eighteenth century. The extensive collecting both in Einhorn, Arthur and Thomas S. Abler terms of artifact types and sheer numbers as well as the 1996 Bonnets, Plumes, and Headbands in West’s Painting of Penn’s Treaty. American Indian Art Magazine 21(3): higher rate of preservation are clearly indicative of the 44–53. new trend. Especially Brunswick collectors like Du Roi Epping, C. S. J. also provide examples for the natural history-inspired 1911 (ed.) Journal of Du Roi the Elder, Lieutenant and Adjutant kind of ethnographic documentation based on comple- in the Service of the Duke of Brunswick, 1776–1777. Americana mentary written observations, drawings, and specimens. Germanica Monographs 15. Berlin. Much to our regret, the important feature of taxonomic Ewing, Douglas C. 1982 Pleasing The Spirits. A Catalogue of a Collection of Ameri- identification of artifacts by ethnic group was generally can Indian Art. New York, NY: Ghylen Press. neglected, perhaps (or so it seems) because “Indians” then Feest, Christian F. still appeared to be a sufficiently specific term of classifi- 1980 Native Arts of North America. London: Thames & Hud- cation. son. Our survey has also revealed the significant stylistic 1987 Some 18th Century Specimens from Eastern North differences between artifacts of the second half of the America in Collections in the German Democratic Republic. Jahrbuch des Museums für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig 37: 281–301. eighteenth and those of the nineteenth century, which 1992 North America in the European Wunderkammer be- makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use the method of fore 1750. Archiv für Völkerkunde 46: 61–109. “upstreaming” from the known to the unknown. The nec- 1993 European Collecting of American Indian Artefacts essary task of identifying and classifying these important and Art. Journal of the History of Collections 5(1): 1–11. early artifacts, which are now widely scattered in different 1995a The Collecting of American Indian Artifacts in Eu- repositories on both sides of the Atlantic, remains an im- rope, 1493–1750. In: K. O. Kupperman (ed.), America in Eu- ropean Consciousness, 1493–1750 (Chapel Hill, NC: Uni- portant but difficult task. versity of North Carolina Press for Institute of Early Ameri- can History and Culture), 324–360. 1995b Cook Voyage Material from North America in the Mu- Bibliography seum für Völkerkunde, Vienna. Archiv für Völkerkunde 49: 111–186. Acomb, Evelyn M. 2007 (ed.) Premières Nations, Collections Royales. Les Indiens 1958 (ed.) The Revolutionary Journal of Baron v. Closen, 1780– des forêts et des prairies d’Amérique du Nord. Paris: Réunion 1783. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. des Musées Nationaux—Musée du quai Branly. Andree, Richard Flynt, Suzanne 1899 Alte Trommeln indianischer Medizinmänner. Globus 2004 Early Native American Collections in Deerfield. Amer- 75: 14–16. ican Indian Art Magazine 30(1): 52–59. Auerbach, Ilse Grimes, John R., Christian F. Feest, and Mary Lou Curran 1996 Die Hessen in Amerika, 1776–1783. Quellen und For- 2002 Uncommon Legacies. Native American Art from the Peabody schungen zur hessischen Geschichte 105. Marburg. Essex Museum. New York, NY: American Federation of Arts. Benndorf, Helga and Arthur Speyer Harrison, Julia et al. 1968 Indianer Nordamerikas, 1760–1860. Offenbach a.M.: 1987a The Spirit Sings. Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peo- Deutsches Ledermuseum. ples. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart.

53 1987b The Spirit Sings. Artistic Traditions of Canada’s First Peo- Objects from North-eastern North America in the Farquhar- ples. A Catalogue of the Exhibition. Toronto, ON: McClelland son Collection. Journal of the History of Collections 6(1): 21–33. and Stewart. [Riedesel, Friederike von] Heinrichs, Johann 1989 Mit dem Mut einer Frau [originally published in 1800 as 1898 Extracts from the Letter-book of Captain Johann Die Berufs-Reise nach America. Briefe auf dieser Reise und Heinrichs of the Hessian Jäger Corps, 1778–1780. Pennsyl- während ihres sechsjährigen Aufenthalts in America zur Zeit des vania Magazine of History and Biography 22: 137–170. dortigen Krieges]. Stuttgart: K. Thienemanns Verlag. Idiens, Dale Schlözer, August Ludwig 2007 Early Collections from the North American Wood- 1778–1779 Briefwechsel meist historischen und politischen In- lands in Scotland. In: J. C. H. King and C. F. Feest (eds.), halts. 3.–5. Theil. Göttingen: Vandenhoek. Woodlands Indian Art (ERNAS Monographs 3; Altenstadt), Sotheby's 10–15. 1982 Fine American Indian Art. Property of Various Own- Joubeaux, Hervé ers including M. L. Messiter, Esq. [...]. Sale number 4842Y. 2002 Trésors de la Cathedrale de Chartres. Chartres: Musée des New York, NY. Beaux-Arts de Chartres. Stephenson, R. Scott Kasprycki, Sylvia S. 2007 The Decorative Art of Securing Captives in the East- 1997 Quilled Drawstring Pouches of the Northeastern ern Woodlands. In: J. C. H. King and C. F. Feest (eds.), Woodlands. American Indian Art Magazine 22(3): 64–75. Woodlands Indian Art (ERNAS Monographs 3; Altenstadt), King, J. C. H. 54–66. 1982 Thunderbird and Lightning. Indian Life in Northeastern Sturtevant, Willliam C. North America 1600–1900. London: British Museum Pub- 2001 Documenting the Speyer Collection. In: C. F. Feest lications Ltd. (ed.), Studies in American Indian Art. A Memorial Tribute to 1993 Woodlands Art as Depicted by Sarah Stone in the Col- Norman Feder (ERNAS Monographs 2; Altenstadt), 162–186. lection of Sir Ashton Lever. American Indian Art Magazine Tustin, Joseph Philips 18(2): 32–45. 1979 Diary of the American War. A Hessian Journal. New 1999 First Peoples, First Contacts. Native Peoples of North Amer- Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ica. London: British Museum Press. Vermeulen, Henk F. Krickeberg, Walter 1992 The Emergence of “Ethnography” ca. 1770 in Göt- 1954 Ältere Ethnographica aus Nordamerika im Berliner Muse- tingen. History of Anthropology Newsletter 19(1): 6–9. um für Völkerkunde. Baessler-Archiv, N.F. 2. Völger, Gisela Lafitau, Joseph François 1976 Indianer Nordamerikas, Zirkumpolare Völker. Kataloge des 1724 Mœurs des sauvages amériquains, comparées aux mœurs des Deutschen Ledermuseums 4. Offenbach a.M.: Deutsches premiers temps. 2 vols. Paris: Saugrain l’aîné. Ledermuseum. Lagrange, Philippe and Jacques-Marie Dubois Walther, P. A. F. 1992 “Nos Petites Amériques”. Collections amérindiennes des 1844 Die Sammlungen von Gegenständen des Alterthums, der musées de Franche-Comte. Besançon: Musée des Beaux-Arts et Kunst, der Völkerkunde und von Waffen im Großherzoglichen d’Archéologie. Museum in Darmstadt. 2nd ed. Darmstadt. Lowell, E. J. Woodward, Arthur 1970 The Hessians and the other German Auxiliaries of Great 1946 The Metal Tomahawk—Its Evolution and Distribu- Britain in the Revolutionary War. [1884] Williamstown: Cor- tion in North America. The Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga ner House. Museum 7(3): 2–42. Peterson, Harold L. Wray, Charles F. 1965 American Indian Tomahawks. Contributions from the 1983 Seneca Glass Trade Beads c. A.D. 1550–1820. Proceed- Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation 19. ings of the 1982 Glass Trade Bead Conference. (C. F. Hayes, New York, NY. ed., Rochester Museum & Science Center, Research Rec- Pauli, P. A. ords 16), 41–49. 1818 Das Großherzogliche Museum in Darmstadt. 2nd ed. Mainz. Zibert [Siebert], Erna Phillips, Ruth B. 1975 Irokezskie kollektsii MAE. Sbornik Museia Antropologii i 1991 Glimpses of Eden: Iconographic Themes in Huron Etnografii 31: 5–35. Pictorial Tourist Art. European Review of Native American Zimmermann, E. A. W. von Studies 5(2): 19–28. 1804 Taschenbuch der Reisen oder unterhaltende Darstellung der 1999 Trading Identities. The Souvenir in Native North American Entdeckungen des 18. Jahrhunderts in Rücksicht der Länder-, Art from the Northeast, 1700–1900. Seattle, WA—London: Menschen- und Produktenkunde 3. Leipzig: Fleischer. University of Washington Press. Phillips, Ruth B. and Dale Idiens 1994 “A Casket of Savage Curiosities”: Eighteenth-century

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