Producer unknown to us
Model of a house
Americas, Nicaragua, Mosquito Coast, Miskito
Prior to 1911
Wood, plant fibre, woven, nailed
Otto Arndt (Co-founder of the Museum association in Herrnhut)
Sold to the museum as a double from the Herrnhut collection in 1911
MAm 01465
Model of a Miskito house in the architectural style of the Moravian mission from 1850 in Nicaragua. Its seller, Otto Arndt (1839–1922), was a central figure in the development of the museums in Herrnhut from 1878. He did not travel to the missionary territories himself, but often resold objects from the missions through Herrnhut. His activities thus show the role of the Moravian Mission in collecting and trading ethnographic objects in Europe.
Small models of dwellings, vehicles, and tools from the missionary territories were systematically produced locally and in large numbers by missionaries as well as converts, and sent to museums and Movarian schools in Germany. This is also rooted in the pedagogical teachings of Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670), which were shaped by the idea of teaching by showing and explaining.
Frank Usbeck