Indian trade silver in the northeast served as a cultural marker for both Euroamerican and Native populations. The metal held different, positive meanings to these groups, and was a logical outgrowth of earlier trade in copper objects. Trade silver and its motifs can be read as inter-cultural documents, illuminating the degrees to which Native Americans were active participants in its manufacture. A group of early nineteenth-century brooches, cuffs, and tall hat bands, or "crowns" with Maine provenance bear motifs that were more commonly executed in Native-crafted media, such as birchbark containers, beadwork and wood carving. This trade silver was, for the most part, made by Euro-Canadian smiths and may be a product of diplomatic exchange within the inter-tribal Wabanaki Confederacy. The conjunction of Native symbols and Euroamerican silver forms transformed trade silver, a product of many cultures, into a wholly Native American object.

Account of the trade in silver between Indians and Europeans from 1760 to 1821. Illustrates and describes all the silver chosen for an exhibition which travelled throughout Canada and the United States.