Dan ceremonial ladles known as wunkirmian or wakemia (spoon associated with feasts) are badges of prestige that acknowledge a woman for her invaluable generosity to her family and the entire community. These objects were created to serve as symbols of status and the bearer of spiritual powers. The complex design and craftsmanship of these ladles are the mark of their relevance. Read More

Carved drinking vessels served as a sign of the authority of a Kuba chief. These drinking vessels are used in the ritual drinking of palm wine. Offering palm wine to guests is a typical form of Kuba hospitality. Read More

Photographer Ansel Adams is famous around the world for his dramatic black-and-white landscape photography, in particular views of the American West. Self-taught, Adams played an outsized role in the history of American art photography. He helped found Aperture magazine and the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona, and served as an advisor during the beginnings of the photography program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the early 1930s, Adams was also a founding member of Group f/64, a collective of photographers (including Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston) who helped to define American modernism through their preference for precise focus and attention to composition. Read More

The distinctive swishing, clinking sound of ice cubes and liquid jostling inside a cocktail shaker is a joyful part of mixing up a daiquiri or a French 75. NOMA’s collection includes two American chrome cocktail shakers that date from around 1930, during an era known for the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. But with some irony, the Prohibition era slo saw Americans drinking more distilled liquor than they ever had before. Read More

In the United States, Ishimoto Yasuhiro is perhaps best known for his street photography—in particular his fascination with the people and environs of Chicago. This photograph is typical of Ishimoto’s street work, in that he most often turned his view perpendicular to whatever street he stood on (as opposed to looking down the thoroughfare towards a horizon) to better to capture the people and buildings that interested him. He rarely staged his photographs, but rather took notice of what was in front of him and carefully composed a picture in his mind. Read More