Beyond the Spectacle: Native North American Presence in Britain

American Museum & Gardens, Bath

Claverton Manor, Bath, BA2 7BD

WEBSITECOLLECTIONS DATABASEE: enquiries@americanmuseum.org 

Located in Bath, the American Museum is situated as the premier collection devoted solely to American material culture in Britain. Covering major American artistic periods and societies, including Indigenous peoples, it has significant collections of textiles, furniture and paintings.

Particularly notable among its Native American collections are the Navajo weaving displays and a selection of well-preserved Southwest pottery, as well as the Rinehart collection of photography from 1898.

Please contact the museum well in advance of your visit to ensure that access to collections is possible.

HIGHLIGHTS (Images copyright of the American Museum)

Hattie Tom & Bonnie
Yela (Apache), photograph
Navajo blanket
Anasazi bowl

Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RL

WEBSITECOLLECTIONS DATABASECONTACT

One of Britain’s most important regional museums, situated in one of Britain’s most important port cities, Bristol Museum’s strong holdings of Native North American objects reflect its history as a centre for transatlantic trade.

Collections at Bristol are strongest from Canada, and include Woodlands, Plains and material, as well as significant collections from the Arctic and the Northwest Coast.

Please contact the museum well in advance of your visit to ensure that access to collections is possible.

HIGHLIGHTS (Images copyright of the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Caribou skin parka, Inuit
Chieftain’s whaling hat,
Northwest Coast
‘American Diastrophism’,
Diego Romero, Cochiti Pueblo

Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RX

WEBSITECOLLECTIONS DATABASECONTACT

RAMM in Exeter is one of the most important ethnographic museums in the South West, with large galleries devoted to material culture from around the world.

The Native American collections at Exeter were donated mainly by Edgar Dewdney and Cecil Denny, and include a ceremonial shirt which once belonged to the Blackfoot chieftain Crowfoot and a large totem pole by Nuu-chah-nulth carver Tim Paul, as well as material from Woodlands and Inuit peoples.

For more details on the Native collections, please see click here.

Please contact the museum well in advance of your visit to ensure that access to collections is possible.

HIGHLIGHTS (Images copyright of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum)

Athapaskan
beadwork bag
Crowfoot’s shirt, Blackfoot
Nuu-chah-nulth Totem pole

Torquay Museum

529 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, TQ1 1HG

WEBSITECOLLECTIONS DATABASEE: enquiries@torquaymuseum.org 

The museum of the Torquay Museum Society was built up using collections donated and developed by local people, who returned from overseas with objects from across the world.

On display in the Explorer’s gallery, which details the Museum’s ethnographic Collections, are a few pieces from the Americas. The majority of specimens including this Haida paddle are in storage and available to view by appointment.

Please contact the museum well in advance of your visit to ensure that access to collections is possible.

HIGHLIGHT (Image copyright of Torquay Museum)

Haida paddle

The Box, Plymouth

Tavistock Place, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AX

WEBSITE  COLLECTIONS DATABASE E: theboxenquiries@plymouth.gov.uk

The Box, which opened in 2020, holds a permanent collection that includes significant artefacts and archives relating to the Mayflower as well as around 800 objects originating from the Americas.

Highlights include a significant collection of artefacts from the Canadian Pacific Northwest Coast which includes Haida argillite carvings from the mid-1800s.

Please contact the museum well in advance of your visit to ensure that access to collections is possible.

HIGHLIGHTS (Image copyright of The Box, Plymouth)

Spoon with horn bowl and decorated wooden or horn
handle from Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia,
Canada

Three fragments of a decorated pipe made from steatite or
argillite from Canada