Moccasin Exhibit in the American Museum 



By CLARK WISSLKR 



A SPECIAL moccasin exhibit has 

 been pUiced in the center of tlic 

 Eastern Woodland Indian hall of 

 the Museum. Two points are shown 

 by it: the principal moccasin patterns 

 and their distribution, and also the rela- 

 tion between the style of decoration and 

 the structure, or cut. This is not oflered 

 as an exliaustive treatment of the sub- 

 ject, but as an introductory guide to the 

 study of footwear in general as shown in 

 all parts of this and the adjoining halls. 



As far as we know, this Museum has 

 the most extensive moccasin collection 

 in the world. From many tribes we 

 have in our storage collections large 

 series presenting all the varieties of 

 pattern and decoration. From these 

 many hundred examples, type specimens 

 were selected for our exhibition halls, 

 where they give an adequate exposition 

 of the primitive skin shoe. 



The regular Museum visitor will find 

 these moccasins an interesting subject 

 for study. As the collections in our halls 

 show, the true moccasin is almost con- 

 fined to Canada and the upper two-thirds 

 of the United States. In Mexico and 

 southward into South America, it does 

 not occur so far as our data go. In 



The true moccasin is usually made from a single 

 piece as shown in this undecorated baby's moccasin of 

 soft deerskin. This moccasin was cut after the pattern 

 shown at left below. The most skillful maker cannot 

 avoid a somewhat unsightly puckering at the sides of 

 the seam 



Siberia and even in the European Lap- 

 land, we find a similar skin shoe or boot. 



One-piece moccasin patterns. The flaps of the left-hand inoccasia are additions to the pattern, and in the 

 right-hand one the seami is carried over the toe to avoid puckers. Decorations on the front of the moccasin were 

 evidently originally designed by the Indians to cover the seam 



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