Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
December 24, 1822
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 123
Additional Source Text:
From near Fort Smith, Arkansas
Notes:
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, has a skunk skin tobacco pouch, pictured here, that has been traditionally associated with a Peale Museum label indicating that it was given by James Reid Lambdin. It is one of the many cultural items that the Peabody acquired in 1899 from Moses Kimball's Boston Museum. Kimball and P. T. Barnum jointly purchased many of the Peale collections when they were sold about 1849. It may be one of the two pouches comprising this donation.
The label reads: "Pouch of the Saukey Tribe of Indians. Presented by James R. Lambdin."
James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889) was an American artist, famous for many of his portraits of U.S. Presidents. Shortly after making this donation he was studying art in Philadelphia and exhibited a portrait at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1824. In 1827 Lambdin established and ran a Museum of Natural History and Gallery of Painting in Pittsburgh, which included both artistic and scientific displays and was clearly inspired by the Peale Museum in Philadelphia. Lambdin settled permanently in Philadelphia in 1837 and from 1861 to 1866 was Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania / https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1452.html
