The Moche Kingdom, which flourished on the north coast of Peru between 100 B.C. and A.D. 700, produced one of the most remarkable art styles of Pre-Columbian America. Although the Moche people had no writing system, they left a vivid artistic record of their activities and their environment. Their art illustrates their clothing, architecture, implements, supernatural beings, and a multitude of activities such as warfare, ceremony, and hunting. [PDF, Acorbat Reader required] Read >>

Rlured by the beauty of the materials, the fineness of the craftsmanship, and the fascination of the iconography of the first Pre-Columbian objects he saw. The Bliss Collection has been, since its beginning in 1912, primarily an esthetic one-probably the first esthetically oriented collection of Pre-Columbian artifactsso it seemed appropriate to organize a conference that would focus on a cross-cultural, art-historical approach. When we sought for a theme, the first that came to mind was that great unifying factor in Pre-Columbian cultures, the feline. Large cats such as the jaguar and puma preoccupied the artists and religious thinkers of the very earliest civilizations, the Olmec in Mesoamerica and Chavín in Peru. The feline continued to be an important theme throughout much of the New World until the European conquests. [PDF, Acrobat Reader required] Read >>

Olmec art held a special place in the heart of Robert Woods Bliss, who built the collection now housed at Dumbarton Oaks and who, with his wife, Mildred, conveyed the gardens, grounds, buildings, library, and collections to Harvard University. The first object he purchased, in 1912, was an Olmec statuette he commonly carried a carved jade in his pocket; and, during his final illness, it was an Olmec mask that he asked to be hung on the wall of his sick room. It is easy to understand Bliss’s predilection for Olmec art. With his strong preference for metals and polished stone, the Olmec jades were particularly appealing to him. Although the finest Olmec ceramics are masterpieces in their own right, he preferred to concentrate his collecting on jades. [PDF, Acrobat Reader required] Read >>

Saints in Art by by Clara Irskine Clement. Read >>

Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts - Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 3-66 by Cyrus Thomas, 1825-1910. Read >>

Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts - Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University by Paul Schellhas, 1859?-1945. Read >>

Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466. by William Henry Holmes, 1846-1933. Read >>

Animal Carvings from Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 117-166 by Henry W. (Henry Wetherbee) Henshaw, 1850-1930. Read >>

Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 263-288 by James Owen Dorsey, 1848-1895. Read >>

A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522 by Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1857-1900. Read >>