ticketsMember | Make a donation

Bonnet

Ca. 1840
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
This embroidered cloth cap was purchased in the early 1840s in Senegal or the Gambia by the nineteenth-century humanitarian Victor Schœlcher. As president of the French commission on the abolition of slavery, Schœlcher was responsible for the decree, signed on April 27, 1848, that definitively put an end to slavery in France and its colonies. Over the course of his travels relating to advocacy, he assembled a collection of hundreds of objects that he documented extensively and donated to French institutions at the end of his life. Beyond their unusually early collection date, no specific information about these textiles has been retained.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bonnet
  • Date: Ca. 1840
  • Geography: The Gambia
  • Culture: Mande peoples
  • Medium: Cotton, dye
  • Dimensions: W. 9 7/16 × D. 3/8 × L. 11 13/16 in. (24 × 1 × 30 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Costumes-Accessories
  • Credit Line: Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1886.9.21)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing