Sketches of Monuments and Antiques Found in the Mounds, Tombs, and Ancient Cities of America

Object Details

Variant Title: North American (Mississippi Valley and Ohio), Central American and Peruvian antiquities - North American (Mississippi Valley and Ohio)

Collection Citation: MS 3146 Edwin Hamilton Davis papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Scope and Contents: A portfolio containing 92 drawings of objects found in mounds, tombs, and ancient cities of the Mississippi Valley, Mexico, Central America, and Peru arranged, classified, and described by Davis. The drawings were made by James Plunkett. Most of the objects were in Davis' personal collection. Five deteriorating acetate negatives that originally came with the collection have been discarded. Four were copy negatives of some of the drawings. The fifth negative, which has been digitized, is a photograph of an artifact not found among the drawings. The image is a side view of a pipe carved in the shape of a frog crouched to spring. A print made from the digital image has been placed with the collection.

Collection Restrictions: The collection is open for research. Access to the collection requires an appointment.