Producer unknown to us
A pair of moccasins
Americas, Eastern North America, the Iroquois
19th century
Leather, velvet, cotton thread, beadwork
Collection context unknown to us
Handed over to museum by Naturkundemuseum Stralsund in 1965
NAm 4825 a, b
This pair of smoked brown leather moccasins has a black plush U-shaped insert over the instep sewn onto a cardboard base. They are embellished with clear glass beads in an Iroquois upholstery stitch. The edges are highlighted with white glass beads. The flap is also made from black plush with red fabric trim.
This item was taken over from Naturkundemuseum Stralsund as part of the GDR’s museum profiling campaign. According to the records, the Stralsund museum lacked the expertise to maintain these ethnographic exhibits properly. In addition, they were rarely used in exhibitions, as they did not fit into the museum’s collection profile. Spotty records have so far precluded exact determinations of the origin and circumstances of the acquisition of this object.
Frank Usbeck