Hampton Institute Drawings - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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Nº29 Dream Cult of the Black-tailed Deer

Ethnographic Notes

“these to man play a game/ they have a deer skin so when/ they wanted to play they take/ skin and put over there head/ That is all Nov. 15” 1879/ David Simmons” (Artist’s inscription, verso)

“Simmons depicts members of the dream cult of the black-tailed deer, who performed and tested their powers along with the elk-dreamers and the heyoka. Their masks were similar to those of the elk-dreamers, triangular and made of hide with a willow branch superstructure. Their masks also differed slightly according to a dreamer's individual dream. The mask of the dreamer on the left has a mirror attached to it instead of to the hoop that the dancer carries (see Nº7 and Nº37).” (p.43)

William S. Wierzbowski and Helen M. Mangelsdorf in Images of a Vanished Life: Plains Indian Drawing from the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1985.


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Provenance

Drawings made in 1879 by students at the Hampton Institute, Virginia. Donated to the Pennsylvania Academy of ...

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Document Info
Plate No: 26
Page No: 1982_X_166
Media: Ink, watercolor on cream tagboard
Dimensions: 8 3/4 x 11 1/16 in.
Custodian
Credit line: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
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