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Source Description
Made of plain wood, this is a model of a canoe with a prow, seats, and five paddles. Composed of multiple panels sewn together with fibers, it was described in historical museum documents as a "war canoe." Similar examples from around the same period are found in American and European museums, where they had been collected in eastern, central, and western Africa as anthropological artifacts rather than as artworks. While the archives have little information about this object, it appears similar to Ugandan sewn plank canoes and to a model example collected in Uganda between 1890 and 1910 now at the British Museum.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
110826
label
Model Canoe and Paddles
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
110826
contentType
object
title
Model Canoe and Paddles
description
Made of plain wood, this is a model of a canoe with a prow, seats, and five paddles. Composed of multiple panels sewn together with fibers, it was described in historical museum documents as a "war canoe." Similar examples from around the same period are found in American and European museums, where they had been collected in eastern, central, and western Africa as anthropological artifacts rather than as artworks. While the archives have little information about this object, it appears similar to Ugandan sewn plank canoes and to a model example collected in Uganda between 1890 and 1910 now at the British Museum.
date
1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80002945
genreSpecific
Furniture and woodwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.)
cul
Africa, East Africa, probably Uganda, unknown maker
accession
1929.35
Source extras
tec
wood
tombstone
Model Canoe and Paddles, 1900s. Africa, East Africa, probably Uganda, unknown maker. Wood; overall: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, 1929.350
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
The small scale and a 1929 description of this object as "modern" suggest it was made for tourists.
creditline
Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:52:42.400000
sourceId
110826
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
wood
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
0759ad73f124ce7b