Purse

Mediumcloth

Object number00.182.14

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionA black beaded purse with white, green, blue, pink, and red beads and a black ribbon attached at the top, likely made for the market and probably by a Haudenosaunee woman.

It is unknown when Haudenosaunee women began to make the cloth beaded bags that were sold throughout the 1800s and into the 1900s. There are extant examples similar in form that are made of hide and decorated with quillwork which suggests that the style and use of these bags pre-dates Euro-American influence. The earliest known example, published in Gerry Biron’s landmark study "A Cherished Curiousity: The Souvenir Beaded Bag in Historic Haudenosaunee" was reportedly collected in 1794.

At the beginning of the 1800s, bags like these began to be sold at Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls was the premier tourist destination of 1800s America. At the same time, Victorian beaded purses were also a necessary fashion accessory of the era. Native beaded bags became a popular souvenir good.

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