The Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville has mounted an online image database to its Pearsall Collection of Native North American art. The Pearsall database includes a selection of 500 objects, about 20%
of the collection, from the United States and Canada, as well as a few
Siberian artifacts from the Western Arctic. The database is searchable by accession number, culture area, tribal affiliation and material type. To search the database click here.
Through late 2006 the museum is presenting the complementary exhibition The Pearsall Collection of American Indian Art: 40th Anniversary Selections.
At left: Navajo rug, wool, ca. 1880 to 1900, #P1987
According to the museum's web site,
"Our North American Indian ethnographic collection numbers over 3600 objects, making it the largest such collection in the Southeast ... The ethnographic collection spans all the major geographic areas of North America and includes many important artifact types ...
"A major component in the Florida Museum's North American Indian ethnographic collection came to the University of Florida in 1964 when a donor purchased the Leigh Morgan Pearsall collection for the museum. With representative pieces from most of the major tribal cultures in North America, the Pearsall collection is especially rich in examples of North American Indian art made during the Reservation Period (1890-1920), a time of transition for American Indian cultures. The collection is an important resource for studying the origins of the North American Indian art market."
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