Producer unknown to us
Box with lid
Americas, Eastern North America
1830–1940
Birch bark, wood, fir roots, quills of the New World porcupine
Collection context unknown to us
Handed over to the museum by Heimatmuseum Veste Wachsenburg in 1966
NAm 4804
This oval box and lid are made of birch bark. Its outside is decorated all over with colored quill applications from a New World porcupine. Its bottom is made of wood, and the lid is framed with spruce roots.
Indigenous communities used birch bark not only to build canoes and huts but also for crafting boxes and lidded vessels. The seams were even caulked to waterproof the vessels. They were used for storing food supplies such as maple syrup and sugar, nuts, dried berries, and more. In response to mass tourism of the growing middle class in the eastern United States and Canada in the mid-19th century, Indigenous artisans crafted such boxes as souvenirs, for example as cases for eyeglasses and cigars, fans, or small canoe models.
This box came to Leipzig from Heimatmuseum Veste Wachsenburg in 1966 as part of the GDR’s museum profiling campaign. Its provenance, as well as the circumstances of collection, are still under examination.
Frank Usbeck