Artifacts Archive

In Albania, waist coats are worn by both men and women as a part of traditional attire. Known as a jelek (pronounced YEH-lehk), women wear them over a long shirt, along with flowing pants, an apron, and scarves. This type of outfit would have been […]

This carnival mask comes from Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. The Carnival of Ponce dates to the mid-1700s and includes a parade featuring floats, bands, Carnival queens, and a distinctive character known as the vejigante. The vejigante wears a brightly colored costume […]

This model was made by a Labrador Inuit craftsman more than 100 years ago and is one of many pieces in the Lam Museum’s Moravian missionary collections. Moravian missionaries founded their first community in Labrador, Canada in 1770.  These early missionaries distinguished themselves from their […]

This Nigerian shrine figure represents Eshu, a trickster deity, or orisha, in traditional Yoruba religion. As a trickster, Eshu enjoys confusion and is mischievous and unpredictable. Despite this, he ultimately works to promote order and harmony. He is responsible for both good and bad changes […]

Hopi potters draw on traditions that go back more than one thousand years. Traditionally, Hopi pottery is made solely by women. This vase was made by Pauline Setalla (1930-), as indicated by her signature and a painted bear claw on the bottom. Setalla was raised […]

People in Mexico have made bark paper known as papel amate for almost 2000 years. Many Mesoamerican indigenous groups including the Toltec, Aztec, and Mixtec used it for a variety of purposes. While the practice disappeared across much of Mexico after the Spanish conquest when […]