Object Details
- Local Numbers
- H 2 NPE 6.4 EE 59
- General
- Title is provided by EEPA staff based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- 58482 63
- Frame value is 11.
- Slide No. H 2 NPE 6.4 EE 59
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Nigeria
- Topic
- Cultural landscapes
- Beadwork
- Vernacular architecture
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Nupe (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Nigeria
- Extent
- 1 Slides (photographs) (col.)
- Date
- 1959
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EECL 7057
- Type
- Archival materials
- Slides (photographs)
- Color slides
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Color slides
- Scope and Contents
- Beadmaking industries still flourish among the Krobo peoples of Ghana and the Nupe peoples in Bida, Nigeria. The beadmaking industry at Bida is famous throughout West Africa. The German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) drew European attention to the beadmakers in Bida in 1911, when he first documented their technique (Frobenius 1968, 434-36). Since then, other scholars have described this technique in their works (see, for example, Carey 1991,12-14). To produce the desired colors for their beads, Nupe beadmakers melt colored glass from bottles or other glass beads in a small, woodburning, clay furnace. They then use iron rods to form the molten glass into various shapes (Frobenius 1968, 434). Finally, the beadmakers decorate their beads with a distinctive white pattern by winding a thin trail of white melted glass around the bead while it is still hot (Carey 1991,14). The fluid colors of the irregularly formed glass beads convey a sense of elegance. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871015626-1
