Cigar store figure

Accession number: 1991.15

This c. 1870 cigar store figure from a tobacconist's shop does not depict the typical Plains Indian, but rather an Indian of the Powhatan and Pocahontas period. This "Indian," however, has unmistakably African features. The maker may have based his image on tobacco labels of the 1700s showing Indians wearing such tobacco leaf crowns and aprons but also depicted as black. Or, it may reflect the 1870s white viewpoint that lumped Indians and blacks together as "colored."

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