MOHAVE POTTERY IN OTHER MUSEUMS

In 1934 F. H. Douglas, of the Denver Art Museum, wrote my colleague Gifford about Mohave pottery which he had seen on display in various museums, without special search of catalogues or storerooms. The list may still be useful.

U. S. National Museum: 25 vessels, mostly old, many collected by Palmer, some evidently mislabeled DiegueÑo or Pimo. One anvil stone. [Yuma, a bowl and a 5-necked vase, from Palmer; the Yuma went in for "fancy" or tourist pieces earlier than the Mohave. Cocopa, McGee got 4 plates, a Mohave type dipper, unpainted, 2 paddles.]

Peabody Museum, Harvard: 10 vessels collected by Edward Palmer in 1876, viz., 1 very large jar, 2 other jars, 1 tiny jar, 3 bowls, 3 dippers; also 2 pottery dolls, a paddle, an anvil stone, a "vessel of mud and straw." There is also a pottery doll secured by Jules Marcou in 1854—he must have been on the Whipple Expedition! [I have seen this lot and, like everything Palmer got, it is excellent. Together with National Museum pieces, these of Palmer's are the most important collection of Mohave pottery extant. There seem to be no handled vessels; but there are dolls—besides Marcou's. The Palmer collections, formed twenty-five to thirty years before mine, will be the touchstone of the "purity" of mine. From having seen the Palmer material, I am confident that Mohave native ware had not been seriously impaired technologically or stylistically by 1902-1908; but it must have been affected somewhat—the railroad came through in 1886—and it will be desirable to know at what points it had begun to change.—A. L. K.]

Chicago Natural History Museum: 8 vessels (bowls, dippers, jars, canteen), also 3 dolls, collected in 1901. [The date points to Owen, who was in southern California about then. From Yuma, one painted, one unpainted bowl.]

Museum of the American Indian: 15 assorted pieces, 3 of them unpainted. [Same number from Yuma]. [Possibly Edward Davis of Mesa Grande collected these.]

University of Pennsylvania: [2 Yuma pottery dolls].

Denver Art Museum: 3 human-headed vases, pre-1900. Also 5 brand-new pieces bought at Needles in 1934.

It is curious that none of these collections have been described, except possibly for stray pieces in nonethnographic connections. They aggregate into a group probably at least as large as that discussed here; perhaps considerably larger when the storerooms shall have been examined.