purse, bag

purse, bag

purse, bag

shokeshotapixch

3: PERSONAL ARTIFACTS

PERSONAL GEAR:

Seminole

Multicolored rectangular bag with drawstring closure at top.

Multicolored rectangular bag with drawstring closure at top. Flat base constructed of palmetto bark fiber. Bottom two inches of sides are straight on the short sides and slightly bowed out on the long sides, rigid, and constructed of open coiled sweetgrass stitched together. The coils are sewn together with decorative stitching that creates continuous vertical lines about 1” apart up the sides of the bag with short, upright-pointing diagonal lines (about 3/8” long) that come off to the left of the vertical lines from the bottom to the top of the coils (about 1/4” in diameter). Each stitch catches a few fibers of the next coil above. The bottom four coils are stitched in green,t he next four in orange, and the top four in dark blue. The sweetgrass coils are laced to a palmetto fiber top with hide spaced about 1” apart. The palmetto bark fiber top is about 8 1/2” tall and is constructed of five pieces of various sizes laced together with hide with vertical seams. The hide stitches are diagonal (bottom left to top right) and are about 1” apart. Approximately 1” from the top of the bag two hide draw strings are threaded through two parallel sets of punched holes, made one on top of the other spaced about 1/4” apart, one draw string through each set of holes. The ends of the bottom drawstring angle about *” and are knotted together about 3 1/2” from the bottom and again about 1/2” from the end. The ends of the top draw string dangle about 11” and are knotted together at 6 3/4” from the top and again about 1/2” from the end. The bag is lined with mustard yellow cotton or cotton blend fabric, folded over the top of the palmetto bark fiber to make at op edge and machine stitched with the raw edge folded under, 1/4” from the top. The lining fabric is stitched together vertically in one location with the same lacing that joins two palmetto bark fiber sections. May have been intended for use as a purse. Small tear in palmetto bark fiber near join with sweetgrass coils with red thread. Appears to have been repaired at time of construction.

created for sale to tourists, outsiders /
domestic use artifact; everyday artifact without special supernatural meaning /
personal adornment

L10"

H10"

W7"

1951 1955 own/col

fiber(palmetto bark) fiber(sweetgrass) cloth(cotton or cotton blend) hide(buckskin)

coiled sewn laced

Seminole

V GOOD

Davis, Hilda J. -donation

Davis, Hilda J. anthropological/ethnological
field

1984-06-0011

object

FL

USA

FL

(deer)

2009 RECAT: Jodine Perkins

2009 RECAT: Object name changed form purse, basketry to more generic bag. No documentation in doc file to support specific purpose as a purse although it may have been. This item was just identified as a basket in original inventory supplied by donor.

2009 RECAT: Mowat 1992. p 9 (see 1984-06-0001)
1984-06-D1

Indiana University/Mathers Museum