Bag with thunderbird
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.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.
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bag with thunderbird
- Artist: Unrecorded Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) artist
- Date: ca. 1790
- Geography: Canada, Great Lakes region, Ontario
- Culture: Anishinaabe (Ojibwa)
- Medium: Black-dyed deerskin, porcupine quills, silk binding, hair tassels, tin cones
- Dimensions: H. 20 1/2 × W. 6 1/2 in. (52.1 × 16.5 cm)
- Classification: Hide-Containers
- Credit Line: Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY (T0008)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing