Bag

The evocative beadwork on this early 20th-century bag portrays a Mexican couple folk costume. The man wears the traditional white cotton shirt and pants, sombrero and Saltillo-style serape. A small bag is slung over his shoulder. His mouth is open as he turns to speak to the woman walking at his side. She wears an elaborately braided hairstyle and wraps a rebozo around her shoulders. The asymmetric composition conveys artistry in the maker's expert use of perspective and ability to convey liveliness and incredible detail (note the fruit on the prickly pear cactus). The frame and decorative handle that would have made this bag suitable for carrying, have been removed.

This bag is part of the Mexican beadwork collection of over 600 pieces assembled by Elizabeth Morrow (1873-1955), mother of writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh. Morrow collected the objects between 1927 and 1930, when her husband, Dwight Morrow, Sr., served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico. She lent the collection to the Brooklyn Museum in 1938 and upon her death, her children donated it. A collection of 155 pieces of Mexican ceramics and other decorative arts were given to Amherst College, her husband's alma mater.

Mrs. Morrow collected Mexican beadwork, along with other examples of colonial and native arts, to decorate their country home in Cuernavaca in order to promote a more peaceful image of that country through its works. The Morrows sought to overturn the perception of post-revolutionary Mexico as a violent and unstable nation by highlighting the richness and diversity of its colonial, folk, and contemporary art. Glass beads were originally imported to New Spain (Mexico) from Italian and Asian sources via Spanish colonial trade routes. By the early part of the nineteenth century, Spain had suffered the loss of almost all of its colonies and with the succeeding establishment of free trade British ships undertook the importation of beads to Mexico. Many of the design influences on the bags and cases in the collection came from Europe; patterns for beadwork designs came from contemporary fashion publications such as "La Dama Elegante."