Double-headed Drum

Item number 50.67.81 from the Brooklyn Museum.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by Brooklyn Museum. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

Description

This double headed, shallow drum is made of skin stretched over a frame. The hide surface is laced close. A projection of stiff rawhide from the top of the drum is now mostly missing. However, the Fort Snelling military officer and artist, Seth Eastman, drew this particular example, showing that this projection originally represented a bird, possibly a thunderbird. The handle is on the right side if the drum is held upright, as shown in the Eastman sketch. There are native repairs on the reverse. The painted design on one side is now brown with darker outlining. Original notes made by Larson on the Eastman sketch list concentric circles from the outside in: "red, deep yellow and yellowish." In addition, the central and largest ovoid field, formerly yellowish and now simply lighter in color, is painted with a smaller brownish (formerly red?) ovoid at the center. This form in turn is surrounded by even smaller circles or dots on the palest ovoid filed, which may have once been yellow and red.