Treasures at the Museum:  Is Powhatan’s Mantle a 1600’s Map?

The first museum open to the public in England was called The Ark or the Musaeum Tradescantianum. It held numerous curiosities collected by John Tradescant and his son during the early 1600’s. The Tradescants traveled extensively gathering up unique and previously unknown specimens of plants and trees, and other fascinating items, from all around the world.  One of the locations they traveled to was the new formed colonies of Virginia in America. From here, they obtained several Native American artifacts to take back to England with them.

One of the most amazing objects collected from their explorations in Virginia was Powhatan’s Mantle. Powhatan was Pocahontas’s father and chief of Tsenacommacah, the eastern region of Virginia. The English colonists of Jamestown were introduced to Powhatan in 1607.  He was the powerful leader over more than 30 tribes surrounding the area, and was the main overseer between the tribes and early colonists during his life. Powhatan died in 1618.

Powhatan’s Mantle is believed to illustrate his Chiefdom and is considered a possibly early map of lands he ruled.

It consists of four tanned white-tailed skins sewn together with sinew thread, and is decorated with over 20,000 small seashells.  The elaborate shell beadwork creates the shape of a human central figure, assumed to represent Powhatan, flanked by two animals, assumed to be a deer and mountain lion.  Surrounding these features are over 30 spiraling circles.  Circles were known to symbolize social communities on early maps, and so it seems this mantle might portray Powhatan’s rule.  Although the mantle may not geographically map out specific locations of different tribes, it is a socially meaningful map of his Chiefdom.

Powhatan’s Mantle was first thought to be a garment actually worn by Powhatan, but it is now believed to have been a hanging for inside a grand interior or sacred space of the tribe.  It measures over 7 feet by 5 feet; seemingly too large to be worn.

It is also not clear how exactly the Tradescants obtained ownership of the mantle, but when bringing it back to England they displayed it in their museum and described it in their 1656 catalog for the museum as being:

“Pohatan, King of Virginia’s habit all embroidered with shells, or Roanoke.”

Today, the mantle can be found at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. This museum is noted to be the first purposely built museum of England.  When John Tradescant passed away he had willed The Ark collection to Elias Ashmole.  The inherited collection made up a large part of the Ashmolean Museum’s contents when it first opened.

It’s interesting to learn about the history and stories behind treasures at the museum, and especially of those which are part of the foundation for the very first museum ever.

Hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

Best of luck with all that you seek!   Always Treasure the Adventure!

 

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