Beaded Belt
Anishinaabe (Ojibwe / Chippewa)
Great Lakes Woodlands
Woodlands
late 19th century
Cotton cloth, glass beads, metal beads, silk, and thread
Overall: 4 13/16 × 37 5/8 in. (12.2 × 95.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Richard Brisson
985.35.26452
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Clothing: Accessory
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Woodlands
On view
Label
Missionaries first introduced European-style flower imagery to Native women in the 1600s, who adapted Euro-American realism into their beadwork. For colonizers, this signaled Indigenous conversion, whereas Anishinaabe women used flowers to embed important cultural messages within their works. Flowers could lead to roots, bark, seeds, or fruits that could nourish the body as food or medicine. Even under devastating circumstances, floral designs preserved traditions that remained hidden from European and American colonizers.
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, March 12 - late 2025.
Provenance
"Mohawk Chief"; collected by Richard Brisson, Grafton, New Hampshire, 1960's; given to present collection, 1985.
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