Museum Collections

Between 1750 and 1830, silver ornaments were a vital medium of exchange between fur traders and Native Americans. Some silversmiths catered specifically to Native Americans' desire for silver to adorn themselves as well as traders' need for goods to barter for pelts. This brooch and cross were made for a merchant involved in the fur trade, probably as part of a bulk order fulfilled by Montreal silversmith Robert Cruickshank. The history of these pieces revolves around Harriet Sophia Clark (1834-1910), a young missionary who worked among the Seneca on the Cattaraugus Reservation in upstate New York. In 1869, she married Lemuel Caswell in a Seneca ceremony and likely received these prized ornaments from her Seneca friends as a wedding gift. In 1883, Mrs. Caswell gave them to the New York City physician Asahel Norton Brockway (1836-1910), who donated them to the Historical Society.