On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Bag with thunderbird
Unrecorded Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) artist
Not on view
The imagery on the deerskin bag is a classic example of Anishinaabe cosmic iconography. With consummate skill and the finest of porcupine quills, the maker has embroidered a great thunderbird on one side rising above land and water—a rare depiction of landscape in Anishinaabe art. The thunderbird contrasts with enigmatic images of water beings who represent the complementary zone of power in the underworld below.
A small group of bags in this style was made by Anishinaabe women in the eastern Great Lakes region between about 1790 and 1810. They were collected by American and British military officers fighting alongside indigenous people struggling to preserve their homelands against further white settlement. This superb example was acquired either by Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, a hero of the American Revolution, or by his son and namesake, governor of Ohio during the War of 1812.
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