Madden Library and Table Mountain Rancheria Exhibition will feature Central California Native American Collections from late 19th and early 20th Century Native American artwork and historical imagery. The exhibit, "Collecting Culture: Early Native American Collections From Central California," is available from September 11 - December 1, 2017 in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery (2nd floor, North Wing).

Background: Following the upheavals of the California Gold Rush, at the turn of the 20th century, Native people were living by traditional means the only way they knew how—gathering material for baskets, trading for goods they needed and surviving off the land the best they could. Their way of life and traditional arts began to catch the interest of various collectors and art dealers. In California, some collectors began acquiring beautiful Native American basketry in trade for medications, used cars and sundry items. Some art dealers began commissioning special pieces such as large gambling trays with complex and meaningful design elements.

Some of these early collections from Central California Yokuts and Mono communities of Friant, Sanger, Dunlap, Visalia and Porterville have been acquired by Table Mountain Rancheria, including the Native American collections of the now closed Fresno Metropolitan Museum. These collections form the foundation for this exhibition, which will also display six extraordinary and historically significant gambling trays, Tiwon, including the gambling tray commissioned from Lois Conner for the 2009 opening of the new Madden Library displayed in video on the Library’s front mesh panel.

The exhibition is curated by Robert Pennell, Cultural Resources Director and Cristina Gonzales, Museum Registrar at Table Mountain Rancheria who also curated the exhibition, Reassembling History at Table Mountain Rancheria for the California Association of Museums annual conference in 2008 and the 2009 The Pursuit of Beauty; California Indian Basketry and the Art of Ansel Adams at the Madden Library.

For more information about disability accommodations or physical access, call Sharon Ramirez at 278.5790 or email sramirez@csufresno.edu in advance of your visit.

See also Library event webpage.