Improved Order of the Red Men

Date1875-1900

OriginAmerica, Indiana or Maryland or Pennsylvania (possibly)

MediumWood (est. by eye as white pine); a second, lighter, unidentified wood for inset battens; varnish

DimensionsOverall: 17 x 33 x 2in. (43.2 x 83.8 x 5.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1980.701.4

DescriptionDarkly varnished wood carving of several figures within a shallow box. From left to right, these figures are an eagle standing on a stump, a man sitting on a log in front of a pile of logs, a tree with many branches, and a second man standing beside a tepee.
Label TextThe letters "T.O.T.E." stamped on the eagle's breast—an acronym for "Totem of the Eagle"—connects this carving to the Improved Order of the Red Men, a fraternal organization that claims ties to secret societies formed before the American Revolution. Nonetheless, its official founding occured in Baltimore, Maryland in 1834, four years after Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and during the forced displacement of tens of thosands of American Indians on the Trail of Tears. Established in part "to perpetuate the beautiful legends and traditions of a vanishing race and to keep alive its customs," the group's terminology and ritual appropriates American Indian culture, and it barred people of American Indian descent from membership until 1974.

Although carvings from this order are rare, Colonial Williamsburg has a second example that likely was carved by the same maker (2001.701.1).
MarkingsThe letters "T.O.T.E." are stamped diagonally across the eagle's chest.
ProvenanceThis carving is believed to have come from a fraternal lodge in the Cumberland Valley. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation purchased it from Don and Faye Walters (Art and Antiques, Goshen, IN) in 1980.