American Indian Material Culture: The Ten Kate Collection, 1882-1888

During two years of fieldwork in the American West in the 1880s, the Dutch anthropologist Hermann ten Kate (1858–1931) assembled a sizable collection of Native American artifacts. These pieces, ranging from utilitarian tools to exquisite works of art, are important especially because of their well-documented collection history and early date of acquisition. Some of the objects—the vast majority of which are today housed in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden—represent the oldest pres...