This flute is made from clay in the shape of a baby bird. The Chorotega peoples, who live near the Great Lakes of Alta Gracia, Nicaragua, produced this instrument. Chorotega potters were known for making clay objects in the shape of animals. How did it get to The Field Museum? In 1892, this flute was part of a Nicaraguan collection exhibited at the Columbian Centennial Exposition in Spain. After the exposition, A.D. Straus, the Nicaraguan Consul General in New York, stored the collection in the vaults of Tiffany & Company, New York. A few years later, Strauss split the entire collection into two parts, half for The Field Columbian Museum and half for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1895, half of the collection was donated to the Field Columbian Museum.

Sounds from the Vaults