Flax Cloak

Object Details

Donor Name

United States Exploring Expedition

"KAITAKA PARAWAI" FLAX CLOAK WOVEN W/ BIAS-WEFTS RUNNING HORIZONTALLY COMMENCING AT THE NECK BORDER. THE SIDES ARE EDGED W/ NARROW "TANIKO" BORDERS & THE BOTTOM HAS A WIDE 21 CM. BORDER WITH TRIANGULAR, DIAMOND & CHEVRON PATTERNS IN BROWN, BLACK AND NATURAL COLORS WITH ADDITIONAL WOOL THREADS IN BLUE AND RED. PORTIONS OF THE "TANIKO" PATTERN ARE RAISED. THERE ARE 71 CONTINUOUS WEFT ROWS WHICH ARE 1.5 CM. WIDTH. VARIOUS INSERTS WHICH GIVE SHAPE TO THE GARMENT INCLUDE SEVEN SIMPLE ELLIPTICALS AT THE SHOULDERS AND BUTTOCKS AND ONE GORING INSERT NEAR THE LOWER BORDER. MARKS. ATTACHED TAG READS, "RIESENBERG NO. 7". THIS CLOAK WAS LISTED AS ET9352, AND RIESENBERG # 7, AND MAY BE A WILKES PIECE. THE CLOAK IS WATER STAINED. THE WATER STAINING MAY POSSIBLY BE A RESULT OF THE 1865 FIRE IN THE SMITHSONIAN CASTLE, OR PERHAPS ALSO WAS SUSTAINED FROM USE OR DURING THE OCEAN VOYAGE FROM NEW ZEALAND TO THE U.S.?

In the 1980's, Jane Walsh had tentatively identified cloak ET9352 as a Wilkes piece, and given it # E3770, however, in 2018, the real E3770 was located in National Museum of American History, Division of Home and Community Life (Division of Textiles), storage at the Garber Facility Building 19. Therefore the cloak Jane Walsh studied has been returned to number ET9352. As it has been tentatively identified as a Wilkes/U.S. Exploring Expedition collection piece, the object has been given the Exploring Expedition Accession number of 66A00050 to facilitate research. One possible number for it is E3767, a U.S. Exploring Expedition cloak which has not been located to date.

Record Last Modified

28 Aug 2019

Specimen Count

1

Culture

Maori

Accession Date

1858

Collection Date

1840

Accession Number

66A00050

USNM Number

ET9352-0

Object Type

Cloak

Length - Object

90 cm

Width - Bottom

207 cm

Width - Top

165 cm

Length - Object

90 cm

Width - Object Bottom

207 cm

Width - Object Top

165 cm

Place

North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) (not certain) / Bay of Islands (not certain), New Zealand (Aotearoa), Polynesia

See more items in

Anthropology

NMNH - Anthropology Dept.

Topic

Ethnology

Record ID

nmnhanthropology_8501061

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/31d9cad2c-5215-475a-9fce-ef312d89bfb0