Belt or collar fragment made of white and purple wampum shell beads woven in a repeating pattern. Restrung prior to donation.
wampum
shell (animal material)
glass (material)
flax (fiber)
Belt
Made with wampum -- beads crafted from shells of quahog clams native to the southeastern New England coast -- this partial collar once belonged to a member of the Penobscot Nation. A Penobscot artist re-strung the collar for the donor in 1890, adding glass beads to substitute for any missing wampum. New England Native Americans have used wampum in rituals and as a medium of exchange, in addition to decoration, for centuries.
1915
Attributed to Penobscot people (Artist)
Maine, United States, New England
1 3/8 (W) (inches)
Gift of Arlo Bates
1917.591
1700-1890 (re-strung)
Point Pleasant (Lincoln county, Maine) [cape]
Title 591 - Assortment of Native American artifacts. Accession Number 1917.521
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].