One of the oldest collections of Native American art is that of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The East India Marine Society (as the institution was then called) was established in 1799 by local sea captains in conscious emulation of Captain Cook’s collecting voyages in the Pacific. Within only a few years its “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities” was renowned throughout the United States and Europe. Today, the museum is an invaluable repository of Native American works collected by the Society and other members of the Salem community before around 1830; the genesis of the Society’s collection makes it a powerful vehicle for understanding the creative versatility of Native American artists of this period. This exhibition, a thought-provoking exploration of the Society’s “cabinet,” moved beyond traditional stereotypes, reflecting the progress of recent scholarship and revealing the richness of Native American cultures.

Selected by Guest Curators John R. Grimes, who became Museum Director at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe after serving as Curator of Native American Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, and Christian Feest, Director of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, this artistic and historical tour through the collection of the East India Marine Society featured approximately 120 works of outstanding quality by native artists working in the early to mid-nineteenth century, in four major geographic and cultural regions: the Pacific Northwest, the Southeast, the Northeast/Great Lakes, and the Plains/Plateau. In each of the areas represented in the exhibition, the curators examined how Native American artists responded to the changing cultural landscape during the period from around 1750 to 1850. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays and entries by the guest curators and Native American scholars and artists, including Richard W. Hill, Sr., Doreen Jenson, Duane King, Ramiro Matos, and Gerald McMaster.

Exhibition Itinerary: The Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University (May 8–August 11, 2002); the Cincinnati Art Museum (October 19, 2002–January 5, 2003); the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (April 24–July 20, 2003); the Peabody Essex Museum (September 19–December 14, 2003); and the Washington State Historical Society (November 6, 2005–January 29, 2006).