Pieces

Grave Marker for “B. B. Body”

By: Probably, Robert Sanders Ham, American, active Perry County, Alabama, 1886 - 1937, Formerly attributed to, Monte Zuma Hughey, American, Perry County, Alabama, 1884 - 1964

…Alabama, with his wife Ada and their many children. Ham, a potter known for his cylindrical grave markers, once lived near Body. Though he had moved to Tuscaloosa County by the time Body died, he probably made this memorial for his former neighbor. Body’s farm eventually became part of the Talladega National Forest; in danger of being destroyed by logging activity, this marker was removed with permission prior to its acquisition by the Museum….

Pieces

Erasistratus the Physician Discovers the Love of Antiochus for Stratonice

By: Benjamin West, American, 1738 - 1820

…was appointed Historical Painter by King George III. This was a major achievement for an artist who was born in rural Pennsylvania (before the formation of the United States)….

Pieces

Study for “Landing of Columbus”

By: John Vanderlyn, American, 1775 - 1852

…as one of five artists selected by Congress to create historical paintings for the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. This drawing of Christopher Columbus looking heavenward is a study for Vanderlyn’s Landing of Columbus, which Congress commissioned between 1836 and 1837. Vanderlyn completed the canvas in 1842, and it was installed in the Capitol in 1847, where it remains to this day. The painting twice appeared on stamps issued by the United States Pos…

Pieces

Frontispiece for “Antichità d’Albano e di Castel Gandolfo”

By: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italy, 1720 - 1778

…ed in the Alban Hills near Rome, Italy, this building was a summer palace of the Catholic popes.  The artist, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, not only created the images of ancient buildings for this volume, but he inserted himself into them. His name appears in the large text in the center of the image, as if it was inscribed in stone….

Pieces

Yoke for Ritual Ballgame

By: Veracruz culture, Mexico, 100 - 1000

Ball players in Mesoamerica wore objects like this yoke for protection. The game they played over 3500 years ago was not just a competitive sport but also a life-and-death ritual connecting the living community to the heavens and underworld. The game’s symbolism evoked the sun’s movement across the sky during the day, and its path through the underworld at night. Actual yokes, made of cloth, leather, or wood, protected a player’s abdomen from den…

Pieces

Stopper for Snuff Container

Pieces

Stand for a Compote

By: Wedgwood, England, est. 1759

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Negro day laborers brought in by truck from nearby towns waiting to be paid off for cotton picking and buy supplies inside plantation store. Friday night, Marcella Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi

By: Marion Post Wolcott, American, 1910 - 1990

…enting the lives of Americans hardest hit by the Great Depression. This is one of a group of images made by Wolcott to chronicle the lives of cotton pickers in the Mississippi Delta. Captured in a moment of repose, the image does not give a sense of the backbreaking work performed by these young laborers. Sometimes it was beauty, not suffering, that Wolcott tried to capture with her camera. It was the effortless beauty of the workers’ natural pose…

Pieces

Underdish for Tureen

By: Wedgwood, England, est. 1759

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Album Quilt

By: Mt. Hebron community, Greene County, Alabama, United States

…quilt may have been made for the minister of that church or to raise money for a church project. Of the forty-one signed blocks, twenty one are signed by men and twelve by women. Considering the large number of men identified on this quilt, it is unlikely all of them stitched their own block and more likely they gave money to the project in return for someone making their block. The quilt is finely made with simple yet elegant and even quilting in…

Pieces

Base for Bust

By: Wedgwood, England, est. 1759

Pieces

Stand for Carafe

By: Wedgwood, England, est. 1759