Producer unknown to us
A pair of moccasins
Americas, United States
1850–1905
Buckskin, beadwork
Georg Coch (photographer) acquired them before 1905; we do not yet know the exact circumstances of their collection
Handed over to Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden from Natur- und Heimatkundemuseum Seifhennersdorf in 1967
56619 a, b
A pair of moccasins with beadwork in the abstract geometric patterns typical of the Great Plains. So far, it has not been possible to attribute them exactly to a particular community. There are indications that point to the Arapaho of the central and northern Plains.
The moccasins were the property of Georg Coch (1847–1905), a famous photographer from Upper Lusatia, and were purchased from his estate by Natur- und Heimatkundemuseum Seifhennersdorf in 1907. From there, they came to Dresden in 1967 as part of the GDR’s museum profiling. The museum in Seifhennersdorf approached the Central Office for Local History Museums of the GDR and asked to hand over its ethnographic objects. As they did not fit into the museum’s collection profile, they could not be used for exhibitions and taxed the capacity of the museum’s storage facilities.
Frank Usbeck