Cradleboard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In most historical Plains cultures, a new mother’s relatives made a cradleboard for the baby. The complex and colorful beaded panels on this example are part of traditional Kiowa designs created by women, though many tribes favored the painted and brass-tacked frames produced by men. The cradleboard allowed the baby to be carried on the mother’s back, suspended from her saddle, or propped against the tipi. This one shows considerable use: preceding generations likely passed it down.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art