Beadwork — at a train museum?


The Tower-Soudan Historical Society Historical Center in Tower, MN (train sounds play on launch), is housed in a depot and notably has a steam locomotive, a caboose, and a coach car that can be rented for events. In the Depot are artifacts from the area, which includes beadwork from area tribes, likely Anishinaabeg. These are hand-held pictures at slow speed through glass, so the clarity is not what I’d like, but take a look — click for a larger picture. The large yellow and green flower on a black ground is actually a pillow. I don’t believe I’ve seen an Anishinaabeg pillow before (likely for the tourist trade).


2 responses to “Beadwork — at a train museum?”

  1. It amazes me how similar the historical bead embroidery work is across the nation! These look so much like the Athabaskan and Tlinget bead work I’m familiar with…also mostly for tourist trade.

    • A good number of tribes like floral work, don’t they? Get to Plains tribes, and there’s much more geometrics – not as many flowers to emulate? I haven’t seen obvious tourist trade beadwork for the Anishinaabeg; certainly not like the Niagara region!

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