Seed Jar c. 1900

This seed jar was created by the Hopi-Tewa potter Nampeyo around the turn of the 20th century. Nampeyo lived her entire life on the Hopi reservation in Arizona, but she found a wide audience for her pots, which revived traditional designs from the ancestral pueblo of Sikyátki. Her work gained popularity in the context of the Arts and Crafts movement, but she also sold to tourists and collectors. Nampeyo was responding to a changing market for Native American art, creating objects that were both functional and beautiful, and that reflected her cultural heritage. Her success allowed her to support her family and to pass on her skills to her daughters and granddaughters, ensuring the continuation of the Hopi-Tewa pottery tradition. To understand this artwork better, we can look at archival photographs and documents from the Hopi reservation.