The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 19, 2025
Model Canoe and Paddles
1900s
Overall: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.)
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
The small scale and a 1929 description of this object as "modern" suggest it was made for tourists.Description
Made of plain wood, this is a model of a canoe with a prow, seats, and five paddles. Composed of multiple panels sewn together with fibers, it was described in historical museum documents as a "war canoe." Similar examples from around the same period are found in American and European museums, where they had been collected in eastern, central, and western Africa as anthropological artifacts rather than as artworks. While the archives have little information about this object, it appears similar to Ugandan sewn plank canoes and to a model example collected in Uganda between 1890 and 1910 now at the British Museum.- 1928Acquired by Paul Travis on behalf of the African Art Sponsors and the Gilpin Players by purchase from an unidentified female seller in Rwanda1928The African Art Sponsors of Karamu House1929—The Cleveland Museum of Art by giftProvenance Footnotes1 It appears on a checklist of "African Material" circa 1928 as "Model of war canoe, Sesse Islands, Lake Victoria." Archives of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
- {{cite web|title=Model Canoe and Paddles|url=false|author=|year=1900s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.350