Special Value Offer: Art of the American Indian Frontier: a portfolio from the Detroit Institute of Arts - The Chandler-Pohrt Collection [SOLD]

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ART OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN FRONTIER

The Chandler-Pohrt Collection

By David W. Penney

With essays by Richard A. Pohrt, Milford G. Chandler, and George P. Horse Capture

Publisher: University of Washington Press, Seattle & London

First Edition, hardcover with slip jacket, 1992, 368 pages, 220 illustrations

From the Jacket:

            “The nineteenth century saw major changes in the U. S. frontier and in the interaction among the peoples living in its borderlands.  The Old Northwest territories, which became Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, were opened to European American settlement, disrupting a native economy well adapted to the fur trade.  Eventually the Great Lakes tribes were consolidated in reservations or pushed beyond the Mississippi to settle adjacent to Plains Indians with whom they had previously had no contact.  Traditional articles such as decorated clothing became increasingly important throughout the century both as means of ethnic identification and a source of income in a cash economy; at the same time, new associations between tribes and settlers led to innovation and change in traditional styles.

            “The Detroit Institute of Arts possesses an incomparable collection of nineteenth-century Native American art from the North American Woodlands, Prairie, and Plains.  The collection resulted from the efforts of Milford G. Chandler and Richard A. Pohrt, whose early childhood fascination with the Indian frontier past evolved into a deep and comprehensive interest in Native American ceremonies, beliefs, and art.  Though neither was wealthy or enjoyed the sponsorship of a museum, they traveled extensively early in the twentieth century, buying or trading for objects they could not resist.

            “This volume presents the Chandler-Pohrt collection with detailed documentation and commentary.  Clothing and accessories of porcupine quill and buckskin, woven textiles, bags, beadwork, necklaces, rawhide paintings, smoking pipes, tools, vessels and utensils, pictographs, and visionary paintings are portrayed in 220 stunning color plates.

            “Complimenting the illustrations are essays dealing with historical context, ethnographic issues, and the lives and philosophies of the collectors.”

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

David W. Penney is associate curator of the Department of African, Oceanic, and New World Cultures at the Detroit Institute of Arts and is adjunct professor of art history at Wayne State University.  He is the author of Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians, editor of Great Lakes Indian Art, and a contributor to several art journals and publications on Native American Art.