Wampum at the New York Public Library

My hunt for wampum has led me to museums, archives, and libraries. Sometimes I discover things I wasn’t looking for. Several years ago I was tracking down prints at the New York Public Library, focusing on the Albany Congress of 1754 in the Emmet Collection of American History. As I flipped through the plates, I suddenly came across this nineteenth-century lithograph by Max and L.N. Rosenthal:

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Wampum. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-243d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

I don’t know anything about this print, but it captured my interest so I photographed it (digitally). I shared it with my wife while I was still out of town. She was quite taken with the lithograph, and I was surprised when I returned home from that trip to find it printed, framed, and on display in our family room where its color scheme fits well with the rest of the decor.

Now the New York Public Library has made available nearly 200,000 digital images, including the image above.