Cradleboard

Mid 19th century

Not on view

This type of 19th-century polychrome Woodlands cradleboard—with highly ornamented relief in carved andpainted wood—is the most celebrated by Native American specialists. Made by Mohawk relatives (womenand men) for a new baby, the iconography of the ‘tree of life’ design expresses the family’s love for the childand the clan’s happiness at receiving a new member. The technologically ingenious cradleboard allowed the swaddled baby to be strapped to the specially designed flat board and carried in the mother’s arms or on her back; it could also be propped against a tree or structure on the ground. The lively flora and fauna design suggests the verdant woodlands environment in which the Mohawk live. It also reveals a French Canadian vernacular influence, not surprising given the Mohawk’s largest reservation straddles the U.S.-Canadian border in the province of Quebec, where encounters and exchange between Native and non-Native worlds flourish

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Cradleboard
Artist: Unidentified Mohawk Artist
Date: Mid 19th century
Culture: Mohawk (Haudenosaunee)
Medium: Carved wood, paint, leather, metal
Dimensions: 29 1/2 × 12 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. (74.9 × 32.4 × 34.3 cm)
Credit Line: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2022
Object Number: 2022.428.3
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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