North American Indian Art: Masterpieces and Museum Collections from the Netherlands showcases 114 oustanding examples of Native art and heritage from the Canadian subarctic forests to the American Southwest preserved in Dutch museums. Many of these rare material documents collected between the seventeenth and the twenty-first century have never been published before. They are here stunningly presented as individual works of art and placed into their cultural and historical contexts by forty-two leading American, Canadian, and European experts who weave together the historical narrative of each object's acquisition with current Native and scholarly interpretations of their use and meaning. In his introductory essay Pieter Hovens provides a detailed account of the history of Dutch interests in North American Indian cultures, from the seventeenth-century colonial experience in New Netherland through the collecting activities of public institutions and private connoisseurs to academic scholarship and social engagement. All of these interests have contributed to the wealth and range of objects featured here as well as to the public perception of Native Americans in the Netherlands. This book offers for the first time an overview of all institutional collections of Native North American arts and cultures in a single European country. It is the privilege of the Dutch museums to share these heritage collections with the widest audience possible.

This work provides access to information on the rich and often little known legacy of anthropological scholarship preserved in a diversity of archives, libraries and museums. Selected anthropological manuscripts, papers, fieldnotes, site reports, photographs and sound recordings in more than 150 repositories are described. Coverage of resources in North American repositories is extensive while Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Australia and certain other countries are more selectively represented. Entries are arranged by repository location and most contributors draw upon a special knowledge of the resources described. Contributors include James R. Glenn (National Anthropological Archives), Elizabeth Edwards and Veronica Lawrence (Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford), Francisco Demetrio, S.J. (Museum and Archives, Xavier University, Philippines) and many others. The guide covers selected documentation in social and cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, archaeology and folklore. Some major area studies collections (such as the Asia Collections, Cornell University Libraries, and the Melanesian Archive at the University of California, San Diego) are also represented. Web URLs have been cited when available and personal, and ethnic name indexes are provided.

"Published to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the museum's founding, this volume explores both the museum's collection and its role as a national cultural institution. Included among the more than 450 illustrations, many of them new photographs taken especially for this book, are pre-Columbian masterpieces such as Mixtec gold pendants worn to evoke the souls of fallen warriors, two-headed clay figurines associated with the Mesoamerican concept of the duality of life, utilitarian vessels carved from obsidian in the form of indigenous animals, and intricate jade masks placed in burial sites. An array of curators and scholars contribute essays on the Mexica (Aztec), Maya, and Toltec Nahua peoples; clues about life in the ancient Toltec metropolis of Tula, and in nearby Teotihuacan; the contemporary ethnography of Mexico; and the historical background of the site, construction, and architecture of the museum itself. This publication is both an introduction to and a complete documentation of one of the world's great museums."--BOOK JACKET.