BOOK REVIEW: PEACE MEDALS

Barry Tayman writes:

Peace Medals: Negotiating Power in Early America by Robert B. Pickering

Stebich's next selection tackles significant questions for many museum goers: what makes something a work of art and how do curators decide which objects have both aesthetic and historic resonance.

Exhibition catalogues, says Stebich, are often "the only lasting element of something that is, by nature, temporary." Fortunately she's had the opportunity to see many museum shows across the country, including a 2011 exhibition, Peace Medals: Symbols of Influence and Prestige, at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that has a catalogue that discusses the changing nature of art. Drawn from the museum founder's personal trove of silver and brass coins, the Gilcrease exhibition explores the historical and meaning of peace medals exchanged between explorers and Native American leaders, objects that weren't necessarily categorized as art in their time, but take on artistic meaning in the present.

Starting with European settlers and continuing on through the founding of the United States, white leaders issued their Native American counterparts a kind of peace medal" to curry favor and build diplomatic alliances. Whether historical artifact or works of art, peace medals are not without controversy. Worn around the recipient's neck, they often incorporate Native American imagery, representing a pledge of peace.

"Through the catalogue, viewers can see how the imagery changed over time through various presidencies and how the medals were valued by the recipients and incorporate portraiture of Native Americans, giving a sense of status to the sitter," says Stebich.

To read the complete article, see:
Five Books That Expand Our Definition of What Art Can Be Read more at https://smithsoniansecondopinion.org/arts/stephanie-steibich-director-saam-180969647/#f0j1OPXwflgibzpR.99 (https://www.smithsoniansecondopinion.org/arts/stephanie-steibich-director-saam-180969647/)

To read the AnthroSource review, see:
Peace Medals: Negotiating Power in Early America. Robert B.Pickering, ed. tulsa, ok: gilcrease museum, 2012. 128pp (https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/muan.12032)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: PEACE MEDALS: NEGOTIATING POWER IN EARLY AMERICA (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n48a07.html)

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