Horse Saddle Pad
Red River Metis
Cree
Subarctic
about 1880
Native tanned hide (formerly a parfleche), glass beads, wool cloth, cotton cloth, cotton binding, porcupine quills, dye, rawhide, paint; leather, metal, thread
Overall: 18 7/8 × 39 3/8 in. (48 × 100 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Newton Buckner
46.10.10783
Geography
Place Made: Canada, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Tools and Equipment: Animal Husbandry
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Subarctic
Not on view
Label
Decorated with dyed porcupine quills and imported European beads, this horse saddle pad reveals the multiple intersections of Native and non-Native artistic traditions. The leather is from a recycled parfleche, or painted hide container, and the designs represent various aspects of the natural world—the white zigzag for otter tracks, or the blue for the thunderbird. The floral design demonstrates the influence of other Native nations, including the Ojibwe.
From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Exhibition History
Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - late 2025.
Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 2011-March 12, 2012.
Provenance
Collected by Mortimer Norton Buckner (1873-1942), Greenwich, Connecticut, before 1926; bequeathed to his son, Newton Buckner (1913-2005), Greenwich, Connecticut, about 1942; [delivered tro Dartmouth College by Newton Buckner's father-in-law, John Carleton Sterling (1888-1964), Class of 1911]; given to present colllection, 1946.
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