Weathervane: Indian Archer

Date1860-1880

MediumIron and paint

DimensionsOverall: 60 x 36 1/2 x 1 7/8in., 25lb. (152.4 x 92.7 x 4.8cm, 11.3kg)

Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. John B. Carson

Object number1975.800.1

DescriptionIron silhouette weather vane of a standing Indian with a drawn bow. Indian is standing in some tall grass. His tunic skirt reaches to his knees. He holds the bow in one hand while the other arm is bent drawing the arrow back against the bow-string. The arrow points slightly upward. The lower portion of his anatomy is slightly larger than his upper portion. His head appears small for so large a torso. He wears a small headdress of feathers and behind his head one can see the the silhouette of his quiver. The bow is braced with a second sheet of iron, and the pole supporting the figure is on the left side. The arm drawing the arrow is braced with a thin sheet of metal on the left side of the figure; and the legs and the grass area are also braced with a triangle shaped piece of metal on the left side of the figure.
Label TextThe celebrated Indian archer vane made in 1716 by coppersmith Shem Drowne (1683-1774) for Boston's Province House is the earliest known American weather vane depicting an Indian with a raised bow and arrow. The image was a popular one, and its use in eastern Pennsylvania can be documented to before 1849, when Edward Hicks included an Indian Archer weather vane on a building in his painting of Leedom Farm.

An oral tradition within the family of the donor asserts that this vane was used on a barn on the property of Philadelphian Joseph Wharton (1826-1906), founder of the business school that bears his name. The vane was saved by the father of Dr. John Carson, the vane's donor, when the barn was demolished about 1915 to make way for an extension of Philadelphia's Broad Street towards the Montgomery County line. [See note 1].
When activated, this Indian pointed his arrow into the wind, which is artfully suggested by the figure's braced stance, billowing costume and rippling feathers, and the wind-swept grasses on which he stands.
ProvenanceProbably Joseph Wharton, Philadelphia, Penn.; Hampton L. Carson, Philadelphia, Penn.; Gift of Dr. and Mrs. John B. Carson, Newtown Square, Penn.

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