Magazines - Tribal Art Summer 2010

By Paul J. Tarver, curator of Native American art at the New Orleans Museum of Art and Cristin J. Nunez who recently received a master of arts degree in art history from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Introduction
An outstanding collection of late nineteenth-century ethnographic photography and Southwestern Indian artifacts will be displayed this summer at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The museum, in collaboration with Tulane University’s Middle American Research Institute (MARI) and Latin American Library (LAL), will present Ancestors and Descendants: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, an exhibition of the George Hubbard Pepper Native American Archive from Tulane’s collection. Opening on July 24, 2010, Ancestors and Descendants will emphasize the first exploration of Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon and investigate the field of Southwestern archaeology and ethnology as it existed in the late 1890s. The show will also explore ethnographic material from that period, including Navajo weaving techniques, documentation of the Hopi Snake Dance, and New Mexican pueblo ceramics, including those of the famous Hopi/Tewa potter Nampeyo. Ancestors and Descendants illustrates the spirit behind the Museum Age and highlights a remarkable period in history when scientists and tourists witnessed firsthand how prehistoric traditions were perpetuated in the 1890s Southwest.