Additional ASM Pottery with Possible Nampeyo Attributions

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This well-worn, unusually shaped jar, described only as Old Hopi on the catalog card, is part of the Dr. Joshua Miller Collection, which ASM received as a donation from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society after the organization purchased it from Miller’s widow in 1917. Dr. Miller (1846–1901) was a physician who, for a time, served as Superintendent of the Territorial Institute for the Insane in Phoenix. He spent many summers at Hopi offering his medical services.

In 1987–1988, University of Arizona anthropology graduate student Kelley Hays conducted an assessment of the Miller Collection. She identified this jar as a Polacca Polychrome, which has a signature crackled slip. The catalog card identified the source based on Miller’s notes as “probably Sikyatki.” 

Fast forward to 2013, with the publication of David S. Schramm’s article in American Indian Art Magazine, “Righting the Record: Attributing a ‘Unique’ Pottery Vessel to Nampeyo.” Schramm illustrates two jars with the same tiered eccentric shape and banded designs. One jar, also with extensive rim erosion, that archaeologist Jesse Walter Fewkes acquired from a Hopi woman in 1895 and was said to have been found near Sikyatki, is now at the National Museum of Natural History (#A155682). The other is in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian and has scant documentation (19/4358). Schramm attributes the illustrated jars to Nampeyo.

Miller would have collected this jar sometime between 1883 and 1897. If Nampeyo made this jar, which was then used long enough to sustain extensive rim erosion, it is reasonable that Miller would have added the jar to his collection toward the end of this time span. 

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In describing the collection, the author of the Land of Sunshine article (likely Charles Lummis; see Watts 2005–2006) writes: “The accompanying illustration shows types of the more than 300 specimens of pottery, ancient and modern, gathered by the president in the “province of Tusayan” (the Moqui country), a collection excellently representative of the fictile art in the region for four hundred years or more. In it are many specimens of the rare and beautiful ancient jars of Sik-yat-ka.” (Land of Sunshine, Vol. 6, p. 93).

Along with much of the Hopi pottery that ASM received from the Gila Pueblo Foundation, Director Harold Gladwin purchased this jar at the Commercial Hotel in Holbrook, Arizona, in September 1928.

The designs on this low, wide-shouldered jar are similar to those found on a jar attributed to Nampeyo that was illustrated on page 103 of Martha Struever’s 2001 book, Painted Perfection: the Pottery of Dextra Nampeyo. Dextra called this a moth design. The illustrated jar was from a private collection. No additional provenance or comparable pots were referenced to indicate the criteria on which the attribution was based. Two additional examples of moth-motif jars are featured in Wade and Cooke’s The Call of Beauty, one from the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum (p. 169) and one from the Drucker Collection (p. 6). 

Gila Pueblo Director Harold Gladwin purchased this bowl from Alice F. McAdams in December 1926. She was the wife of an agent at Keams Canyon, according to museum records. Her husband could have been trader George McAdams (see Arizona Archives Online, Tony Gladwell Richardson Collection).

The bowl has a chipped rim and other signs of use. Its design is a revival of a prehistoric style. A bowl with a very similar design and attributed to Nampeyo is illustrated and discussed in two of Wade and Cooke’s books (2012:146–147, 2022:136–139). 

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Along with much of the Hopi pottery that ASM received from the Gila Pueblo Foundation, Director Harold Gladwin purchased this jar at the Commercial Hotel in Holbrook, Arizona, in September 1928.

The designs on this low, wide-shouldered jar are similar to those found on a jar attributed to Nampeyo that was illustrated on page 103 of Martha Struever’s 2001 book, Painted Perfection: the Pottery of Dextra Nampeyo. Dextra called this a moth design. The illustrated jar was from a private collection. No additional provenance or comparable pots were referenced to indicate the criteria on which the attribution was based. Two additional examples of moth-motif jars are featured in Wade and Cooke’s The Call of Beauty, one from the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum (p. 169) and one from the Drucker Collection (p. 6). 

Researcher David Schramm attributes this bowl to Nampeyo based on the use of design motifs he considers to be signature elements of her vessels for this time period.  In his 2013 American Indian Art Magazine article, Schramm illustrates a jar (p. 69) from the collection of the National Museum of Natural History (A1556820) and a bowl (p. 70) from the American Museum of Natural History (H/15171) that have extremely similar design bands. He convincingly attributes them to Nampeyo. Fewkes identified one motif as a conventional figure of a bird.

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Pottery Collected by ASM Director Byron Cummings

Around 1928, ASM Director Byron Cummings collected four examples of Hopi pottery at Hano. Since that time, one of the vessels (ASM #19401) was transferred to the “State House,” presumably the Arizona State Capitol, and may now be in the collection of the Arizona State Capitol Museum. The remaining three are shown above (19406) and below (19407 and 19408).  

This (19406) is an example of a hastily made and painted pot from the 1920s. Anthropologist Ruth Bunzel (1972:56) observed that “Hopi pottery is made commercially with the greatest economy of time. For the most part small pieces are made and enough clay is gathered at one time to make a dozen or more pots. These are molded and set aside to dry and then are polished and painted together. These factory methods, together with the fact that the trader, himself a Hopi [Tom Pavatea], will buy anything and throw away whatever is too poor for sale, rather than demand better work, combine to produce the worst possible workmanship.”

Daughters in Clay

Included here are examples of pottery in ASM's collection by Nampeyo's three daughters and one granddaughter:

• Annie Nampeyo Healing (daughter, 1884–1968)
• Nellie  Lesso Nampeyo Douma (daughter, 1896–1978)
• Fannie Polacca Nampeyo (daughter, 1900–1987)
• Rachel Namingha Nampeyo ( granddaughter, 1903-1985). Daughter of Annie and mother of noted potters Priscilla Nampeyo, Dextra Quotskuyva, Eleanor Lucas, Emerson Namingha, and Ruth Namingha.

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This polychrome jar by Rachel Nampeyo was a gift by Maxine Peirce in honor and memory of her husband Dr. H. Wesley Peirce (1924–1994), a geologist with the Arizona Bureau of Geology at the University of Arizona. It was a prize winner at the 1952 Hopi Craftsman Show, but then was chipped after the judging. Given this flaw, Maxine Peirce purchased the spectacular jar for $45.00 (the original price had been $60.00). 

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This corrugated jar was a gift from Edward Hamilton, collected by his grandfather J. F. Breazeale, likely around 1920, the same time he acquired the Nampeyo bowl illustrated in his book. 

Nampeyo researcher David Schramm noted that the center upside-down V and solid-oval design panel on this jar are similar to those on the jar next to Nampeyo in a J. R. Willis photo. Schramm found that jar in the collection of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (12079/12). He believes that Nampeyo both formed and painted this jar. Given that it came with the Nampeyo bowl that Breazeale illustrated in his basket book, it is most likely also by Nampeyo.

Gifts from Andrew and Judith Finger

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In 2016–2018, ASM received 15 Hopi pots from Andrew and Judith Finger, who also donated over 200 baskets that had been the subject of a groundbreaking 2006 exhibit and book, Circles of Life: Katsina Imagery on Hopi Wicker Basketry. The Fingers had acquired the pottery, most having katsina imagery, largely through gallery and auction sales. Seven of these pots came with  Nampeyo attributions, supplied by the sources from whom the pieces were purchased. Additional research will be required to independently assess these attributions. 

One jar and a canteen from the Fingers that are very likely to have been made by Nampeyo are included here. Further research on the remaining pottery attributed to Nampeyo is required to confidently assign any of them to Nampeyo or her family.

Joseph Traugott and Laurel Wallace Collection of Hopi Pottery

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In November 2023, ASM received a gift of over 50 examples of Hopi/Hopi-Tewa pottery from Dr. Joseph Traugott and Laurel Wallace of Albuquerque. Art historian Traugott has spent the last 30-plus years researching Nampeyo pottery. In 1999, he published an article clarifying the role that Jesse Walter Fewkes played in Nampeyo’s Sikyatki revival (Traugott 1999). While serving in different capacities at New Mexico museums, Traugott continued his research into Nampeyo and her family, assembling examples of the elder Nampeyo’s work and other pottery he attributed to her mother White Corn, daughters Annie Healing and Nellie Douma, and granddaughters Daisy Hooee and Rachel Namingha. 

Although time did not permit the inclusion of the entire superb array of pottery for this update of A Nampeyo Showcase, more pieces will be incorporated in the future. These three early tiles, one with a “Hopi Villages” paper label, serve as examples of the quality represented in this gift from these generous donors.

Gallery of Nampeyo Pottery | Quotskuyva Family Commentary
Nampeyo's Pottery-Manufacturing Stages | Timeline of Nampeyo's Life
A Nampeyo Showcase Home