More Library of Congress Pictures

Wichita woman and baby with a patchwork quilt

Library of Congress

I mentioned the Library of Congress photograph collection a few weeks ago. I browse through it often for lunch-time entertainment.
Here's the link:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
I do searches for infant or baby, mainly to find some expressions I can use to emphasize a point---see crying princess on the left.
One of the serindipitous findings: lots of pictures of Native American babies in cradle boards and a few in quilts.

Asparoke mother and child

Library of Congress

Salish (Flathead) woman and baby in cradleboard

Library of Congress

I don't know a thing about cradle boards or beadwork or quillwork but don't these look like applique patterns? Same sylized flowers and leaves, similar symmetries. Probably all from the same source---European embroidery designs.

Nez Perce baby in cradle board

Library of Congress

Many of the pictures are late 19th-century but this one is from an 1861 book.

Find pictures of a variety of cradleboard styles at the National Museum of the American Indian by doing a search for cradleboard here:

http://americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections/advanced.aspx

Salish (Flathead) cradleboard about 1880

National Museum of the American Indian