9 Indigenising folk art
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Stuart Allan
Abstract
Engraved power horns are a well-known aspect of the material culture of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), also known in North America as the French and Indian War. In looking at collections in military museums across the UK it emerged that powder horns were a distinctive form of material culture from this campaign. Powder horns were often personalised and artistically adapted, and they feature widely in North American collecting institutions and remain of considerable interest to private collectors. Though many are decorated with detailed maps of the theatre of war, others carry more personalised imagery or inscriptions and were made ‘on the hoof’ by amateur artists as mementoes. This chapter focuses on three examples which have an additionally important feature, the carrying straps likely procured from indigenous allies, which documentary evidence suggests might have been military issue. These include straps that are cut down tumplines (burden straps), glass wampum belts, woven belts or quillwork ‘prisoner ties’. Such items are known from early antiquarian collections. This chapter reviews the possible intercultural relationships encapsulated in the survival of these objects in military museums, and discusses their symbolic value within the military culture of the eighteenth-century British Army.
Abstract
Engraved power horns are a well-known aspect of the material culture of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), also known in North America as the French and Indian War. In looking at collections in military museums across the UK it emerged that powder horns were a distinctive form of material culture from this campaign. Powder horns were often personalised and artistically adapted, and they feature widely in North American collecting institutions and remain of considerable interest to private collectors. Though many are decorated with detailed maps of the theatre of war, others carry more personalised imagery or inscriptions and were made ‘on the hoof’ by amateur artists as mementoes. This chapter focuses on three examples which have an additionally important feature, the carrying straps likely procured from indigenous allies, which documentary evidence suggests might have been military issue. These include straps that are cut down tumplines (burden straps), glass wampum belts, woven belts or quillwork ‘prisoner ties’. Such items are known from early antiquarian collections. This chapter reviews the possible intercultural relationships encapsulated in the survival of these objects in military museums, and discusses their symbolic value within the military culture of the eighteenth-century British Army.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xi
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- List of abbreviations xix
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Ideologies of empire and governance
- 1 Spoils of war 19
- 2 The agency of objects 39
- 3 Collecting and the trophy 60
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Part II: Military collecting cultures
- 4 Soldiering archaeology 85
- 5 The officers’ mess 106
- 6 Seeing Tibet through soldiers’ eyes 128
- 7 A regimental culture of collecting 162
- 8 Military histories of ‘Summer Palace’ objects from China in military museums in the United Kingdom 187
- 9 Indigenising folk art 205
- 10 Community consultation and the shaping of the National Army Museum’s Insight gallery 229
- 11 Mementoes of power and conquest 247
- Afterword 269
- Archival sources 284
- Bibliography 287
- Index 314
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xi
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- List of abbreviations xix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Ideologies of empire and governance
- 1 Spoils of war 19
- 2 The agency of objects 39
- 3 Collecting and the trophy 60
-
Part II: Military collecting cultures
- 4 Soldiering archaeology 85
- 5 The officers’ mess 106
- 6 Seeing Tibet through soldiers’ eyes 128
- 7 A regimental culture of collecting 162
- 8 Military histories of ‘Summer Palace’ objects from China in military museums in the United Kingdom 187
- 9 Indigenising folk art 205
- 10 Community consultation and the shaping of the National Army Museum’s Insight gallery 229
- 11 Mementoes of power and conquest 247
- Afterword 269
- Archival sources 284
- Bibliography 287
- Index 314
