Art of the Americas
The museum's collection of art of the Americas consists of more than 3,000 pieces from North, Central, and South America, from ancient to contemporary art, spanning 4,000 years. For the cultures of ancient Latin America, the museum’s holdings cover three major cultural centers, Mesoamerica, Lower Central America, and the Andes and include a range of media such as textiles (including khipus, used for Inka record-keeping), ceramics, wooden sculptures, and metalwork. The collections are especially strong in ancient Costa Rica, featuring over 600 works from all periods, including greenstone ceremonial axes and stone metates (grinding stones). The Carlos Museum also is the current steward of ancient items found in Georgia, including pieces excavated from the Etowah Indian Mounds, an important cultural center that flourished during the Mississippian period and is affiliated with the Mvskoke (Creek) people.
The museum has a growing collection of more recent artworks by Native American and Indigenous artists from across the Americas, including 19th- and 20th-century textiles from Bolivia, Guatemala, and Panamá. In addition, the museum has a small but substantive collection of items from Native American groups from across the United States, including bandolier bags from the Great Lakes; beaded garments from the Great Plains; ceramics and silverwork from the Southwest; and basketry from multiple Native American nations. Artists represented in the collection include Maria Montoya Martínez and Julian Martínez (Tewa [San Ildefonso Pueblo]), Margaret Tafoya (K'apovi [Santa Clara Pueblo]), and Eva Q. Wolfe and Rowena Bradley (Ani’yunwi’ya [Cherokee]), as well as Tammy García (K'apovi [Santa Clara Pueblo]) and other contemporary ceramic artists from the American Southwest and northern Mexico.
The Art of the Americas collection has changed significantly over the course of the last century. In the late 1920s, Emory’s Margaret Ashley-Towle excavated at the Etowah Indian Mounds under the direction of Warren K. Moorehead of Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, and subsequently transferred some of the excavated materials to the Carlos Museum. Also in the early 20th century, the museum received gifts of Native American artifacts from the collections of W. H. Ferguson (Fulton County, GA), W. E. Hightower (Montgomery County, GA), and Reverend R. B. Ross (Sumpter County, GA), although the exact provenience of those pieces, primarily lithics, is unknown. Between 1988 and 1991, the museum was transformed by the acquisition of more than 1,300 works of ancient American art from Carol and William C. Thibadeau. Subsequent gifts from Cora W. and Laurence C. Witten, Virginia C. and Clay W. Aldridge, and the Alan Grinnell Ars Ceramica Collection added to the formation of the museum’s important collection of art of the ancient Americas.
More recent gifts include 19th- and 20th-century Maya textiles from the Bright Collection of Guatemalan Textiles; 19th- and 20th-century Native American art from the Philip Gainey estate; and modern pottery in the Puebloan tradition donated by Drs. Walter S. Melion and John M. Clum. In the future, the museum plans to expand the collections of contemporary Native American and Indigenous art, especially from the Southeast, in order to allow the Carlos Museum, Emory University, and the Atlanta community to be enriched by the insight and creativity of the many Indigenous artists working today.
In accordance with the museum’s commitment to the Association of Art Museum Directors’ Guidelines on the Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art, research into the previous ownership histories of objects in the collection is active and ongoing. Relevant cultural materials have been published in accordance with NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), and the museum is in communication with officials from associated Native American nations.
The Carlos Museum welcomes and encourages requests from descendant communities to view or research any items in the collection.
