Bowl, Depicting Migration Design

Inscriptions

Signed, in partial cursive, on the exterior side of the bowl, in a decorative cartouche with fringed edge pattern on ends: N [reversed] u m p a y o. [Nampeyo]

Label

Nampeyo (Hopi-Tewa), one of the most well-known potters of the 20th century, was taught to make utilitarian pottery in the Tewa style by her mother. She learned Hopi decorated-pottery practices from her husband. Drawing on both traditions and working closely with her daughters and granddaughters, whose pottery is also included in this case, Nampeyo created work that has inspired generations of artistic production within her family. On the wall just beyond this case hangs a painting by her great-grandson, Dan Namingha. Notice how the fine linework and shapes from these historic clay forms continue to influence contemporary artistic production more than a century later.

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Course History

Writing 2.06, The American Mosaic: Literature, Essays, and Memoirs from the Voices of the Subaltern, Doug Moody, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.

Ancient Native American Pottery, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 32, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 7-February 9, 1992.

Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition; Anthropology 32, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 13-March 4, 1990.

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.

Survival/Art/History: American Indian Collections from the Hood Museum of Art, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 18, 2000-April 7, 2002.

The Tradition Continues: Native American Art from New England Collections, Smith College Museum of Art, Northhampton, Massachusetts, March 10-May 29, 1994.

Publication History

Mary Ellen and Laurence R. Blair, The Legacy of a Master Potter: Nampeyo and Her Descendants, Tuscon, Arizona, Treasure Chest Books. 305 pp., ill. p.84., 1999.

[Tamara Northern], Native American Art, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, 1985, p. 40. (Published in conjunction with Gutman Gallery opening exhibition)

Beth Michelle Schrift, Pueblo Pottery of the Churchill Collection at the Turn of the Century: A Representation of Changing Times, 2004, pp. 1-102, ill. p. 81, fig. 32, p. 89, fig. 40.

Provenance

Nampeyo (about 1860-1942), Hano Pueblo, First Mesa, Arizona; collected by Clara G. Corser Turner Churchill (1851-1945) and Frank Carroll Churchill (1850-1912), Hano Pueblo, First Mesa, Arizona, 1904-1907; bequeathed to present collection, 1946.

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