Exhibition theme
Craft, ritual, dress, music and material culture are connected only through the current governed metadata.
Digital exhibition
Online exhibitions
Explore material knowledge, craft, ritual and cultural memory through governed open-access museum records.
Begin the exhibition- Collection records67
- Collections represented4
- Curatorial studioWICHF
- Public objects60
Curatorial introduction
Curatorial introduction
This digital exhibition brings together factual museum records whose materials, techniques and documented uses support close looking across living-heritage themes.
— WICHF Research & Curatorial Department
Collections represented
4 open-access collection sources provide the published objects in this exhibition.
Open access and rights
Each object retains its museum source, rights statement and link to the official collection record.
Exhibition sequence
Explore the works
Gallery 01
Featured works
60 works
Textile Fragment
14th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A fourteenth-century silk lampas fragment whose bright bands and interlaced inscriptions show the technical richness of late medieval textile weaving in Iberian Islamic contexts.
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Face Plaque
AD 250-600 (Early Classic)
The Walters Art Museum
A limestone face plaque from Teotihuacán. Drill holes and inlay settings suggest attachment to an effigy or funerary bundle rather than live wear.
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Stoneware Ewer
Early 17th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mino ware ewer with decorations typical of Japanese ceramic tradition.
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Dragon and Tiger
c. 1546–56
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A pair of Japanese folding screens in ink on paper, included here as a contextual work linking painted imagery, animal symbolism, and ritual imagination.
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Communion Dish
1672–1673
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Silver communion dish used in church rituals.
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Garment Decoration ("Segmentum") with Man Killing Panther
4th-5th century (Early Byzantine)
The Walters Art Museum
An early Byzantine textile ornament from Egypt. Hunt imagery and woven ornament link dress, decoration, and symbolic motifs in a small format.
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Mummification Bandage of Userwer
ca. 399-343 BCE (Late Period, 29th-30th dynasty)
The Walters Art Museum
An inscribed linen bandage from Late Period Egypt. Its material and text connect textile production with funerary ritual and protective belief.
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Olmec Mask
c. 900–400 BCE
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Olmec jade mask associated with ritual contexts.
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Crib of the Infant Jesus
15th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A fifteenth-century devotional cradle whose carving, embroidery, enamels, and miniature scale bring domestic piety into material form.
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Album of Textile Samples
1790
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A Japanese album of silk textile samples dated 1790. As a portable group of materials, it preserves pattern reference and making knowledge together.
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Basket
19th century
The Art Institute of Chicago
Public domain basket from AIC representing Native weaving.
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Stone Mask
400 BCE–500 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pre-Columbian stone mask used in ancient ceremonies.
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Sitar
c. 1850
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A South Asian plucked string instrument associated with court music and devotional performance.
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Mandarin Robe
late 18th to early 19th century
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A robe worn by a Qing official, using silk and embroidery to express rank and status.
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Handle of a Jiangu Drum
c. 770-475 BCE
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A bronze handle from a jiangu drum, made to suspend an ancient ritual instrument.
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Painted Drum
500-1000 CE
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A painted drum from the Andes, probably used in ritual performance and possibly associated with women players.
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Textile with Tiny Leaves
1275–1350
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A silk textile fragment from Central Asia, woven with gold-thread leaves during the Il-khanid period. It preserves a refined example of courtly weaving practice.
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The Lost Sheep (?)
5th–8th century (Late Antique)
The Walters Art Museum
A Coptic tapestry fragment from Egypt, woven in wool and linen. Its figured design and border preserve late antique textile practice in compact form.
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Sampler
18th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
An eighteenth-century German sampler that condenses household training, needle technique, and moral instruction into a single textile surface.
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Embroidery with the Annunciation
mid-15th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A mid-fifteenth-century Netherlandish embroidery that translates the Annunciation into shimmering threadwork and textile surface.
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Tunic Border Piece
100-200 CE
The Walters Art Museum
A Nazca textile border with three-dimensional figures and stem-stitch embroidery. It concentrates technical invention along the edge of a garment or hanging.
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Panel
100 BCE-300 CE
The Walters Art Museum
A Sihuas textile panel from Peru made in camelid fibers. Its abstract deity and geometric format show Andean weaving as a carrier of symbolic knowledge.
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Sconce (one of a pair)
ca. 1720
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
An early eighteenth-century British sconce that embeds tent stitch and cross stitch within a gilded furnishing object.
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Pair of side chairs
ca. 1724–36
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A British pair of side chairs in which furniture-making and textile ornament meet through contemporary tent-stitch upholstery.
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Carrying Bag
100 BCE-300 CE
The Walters Art Museum
A large woven bag from the Sihuas culture of Peru. Its geometric design suggests both practical use and the visual communication of identity.
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Face Mask
300 BC-AD 300 (Late Pre-Classic)
The Walters Art Museum
A ceramic mask from Colima, Mexico. Its form places mask-making within ancient ritual and funerary traditions of Mesoamerica.
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Smiling figure (Sonriente)
600–1000 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Classic Veracruz ceramic sonriente whose animated face, painted surface, and rattle gesture connect sculptural form to ritual performance.
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Mask
550 BCE
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A terracotta mask from Selinus in Sicily, dated 550 BCE. The object points to ancient ritual and performative traditions, though its precise use should not be overstated.
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Hare in roundel
5th–6th century
The Walters Art Museum
A tapestry-woven roundel with a hare motif, made in Egypt between the 5th and 6th centuries. It shows how small textile units could carry durable decorative language.
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Textile
10th–11th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A dyed linen fragment printed with a kufic inscription and gilded accents, linking textile production to repetition, ornament, and the circulation of everyday devotional phrases.
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Moche Shirt
500–850 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ancient woven shirt representing traditional Moche clothing.
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Kettle Drums
18th–19th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Traditional kettle drums used in ceremonial music.
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Waistcoat
1747
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
18th-century waistcoat showing traditional British clothing techniques.
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Tunic with Felines
1450–1550
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ceremonial tunic representing Chimú weaving and iconography.
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Wari Tunic
650–1000 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Peruvian Wari tunic illustrating intricate weaving techniques.
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Miniature Tabard
1600–1700
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Miniature garment blending Indigenous and Spanish weaving traditions.
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Wari Tunic Fragment
7th–9th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fragment of Wari tunic reflecting ancient weaving patterns.
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Wari Tunic Fragment
650–1000 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Another Wari tunic fragment demonstrating weaving motifs.
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Buffalo Mask
ca. 1900
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yup'ik ceremonial mask used in dances and rituals.
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Armor Mask (Mempo)
Edo period, dated 1745
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Japanese samurai mask (mempō) used in ceremonial armor.
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Silver Basket
1770–1776
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
18th-century silver basket reflecting colonial silversmithing.
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British Coat
1833
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Early 19th-century men's coat demonstrating tailoring and fabrics.
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Innu/Naskapi Man's Coat
ca. 1820
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Indigenous North American coat decorated with pigments.
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Stone Mask
400 BCE–700 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Another stone mask from the Condorhuasi-Alamito culture.
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Lapis-Lazuli Mask
400 BCE–500 CE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ancient lapis-lazuli mask used in Pre-Columbian rites.
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Wooden Mask
19th–20th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wooden mask from Papua New Guinea used in rituals.
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Earthenware Pillow with Sancai Glaze
8th–9th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Chinese sancai-glazed pillow used in traditional furniture.
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Pottery Mold
12th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pottery mold illustrating medieval Islamic ceramic production.
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Pottery Whistle
3rd–9th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pre-Columbian whistle showing musical instrument traditions.
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Shigaraki Tea Jar
17th century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tea jar used in Japanese tea ceremony with kintsugi repairs.
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Burden Basket
c. 1890
The Art Institute of Chicago
Pomo burden basket used to collect seeds and acorns.
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Wedding Basket
c. 1895
The Art Institute of Chicago
Dowry basket presented in Pomo betrothal ceremonies.
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Musical Instrument
1900s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A traditional instrument from Uganda used in music-making and community performance.
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Lamellophone "thumb piano"
1900s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A lamellophone, or thumb piano, in Bushoong style, made for traditional musical performance.
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Drum (ngoma)
no later than 1928
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A traditional East African drum used for ceremony, communication, and dance.
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Ritual Drum (damaru)
c. 1800
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A ritual hand drum used in Tibetan Buddhist and Hindu practice to mark rhythm and cyclical time.
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Cranes and Serpents
c. 475-221 BCE
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A lacquered drum stand from the state of Chu, made to suspend a drum for ceremonial or symbolic use.
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Woman's Robe
907-1125
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A woman's robe from the Liao dynasty, using silk and gold-thread embroidery to signal status and imperial symbolism.
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Bridal Robe (Hwarot)
1850-1910
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A Joseon dynasty bridal robe, or hwarot, used in marriage rituals and often shared across generations of women.
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Buffalo Mask
early to mid-20th century
The Cleveland Museum of Art
A buffalo mask in Bwa style, used in dry-season ceremonies, harvest celebrations, and initiation rites.
View object4 institutions
Open-access collection sources
Curatorial support
WICHF Research & CuratorialTechnology · WICHF Digital Culture LabWICHF
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