Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

LJ · 27th June 2014, 10:43 PM

I guess the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology volumes published in the late 1800s and early 1900s might be worth a look, but there was also a monograph on North American Bows Arrows and Quivers by O.T. Mason published in 1893 in the "Smithsonian Reports" (pages 631-679).

I also remember seeing a book by Allely & Hamm published 1999 "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows & Quivers. Vol.1 Northeast, Southeast and Midwest", and on checking the Web I see they also issued a second volume.

Just also checked Christian Feest's summary of North American artefacts in european Collections pre-1750 (Archiv fur Volkerkunde 46:61-109) and this confirmed something I suspected - that arrows are VERY rare in early collections. Perhaps they were so commonly seen that nobody thought it worth taking them home. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

27th June 2014, 10:43 PM	#25
LJ Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 93	I guess the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology volumes published in the late 1800s and early 1900s might be worth a look, but there was also a monograph on North American Bows Arrows and Quivers by O.T. Mason published in 1893 in the "Smithsonian Reports" (pages 631-679). I also remember seeing a book by Allely & Hamm published 1999 "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows & Quivers. Vol.1 Northeast, Southeast and Midwest", and on checking the Web I see they also issued a second volume. Just also checked Christian Feest's summary of North American artefacts in european Collections pre-1750 (Archiv fur Volkerkunde 46:61-109) and this confirmed something I suspected - that arrows are VERY rare in early collections. Perhaps they were so commonly seen that nobody thought it worth taking them home. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.