Carl V. Hartman (1862-1941) was between 1908 and ca 1920 the director for the ethnographical museum in Stockholm. Hartman was a well known and much respected Americanist because of his pioneering excavations, supported by Åke Sjögren and Hjalmar Stolpe (the latter the museum´s first director), in northern Costa Rica in 1896-97, as well as for similar excavations for the Carnegie museum (Pittsburg, USA). During 1913-14 Hartman made an around-the-world trip with the purpose to purchase artifacts/collections (also for St. Petersburg, Russia). It is probable that this Precolumbian collection has its background in this context. The collection contains e.g. fine objects (axe gods) in jade / greenstone, polychrome pottery with animal motifs such as e.g. feline / jaguar, frog and alligator - typical for the Precolumbian art of Costa Rica / Lower Central America and with strong symbolic importance for the then (as well as for the contemporary) American Indian peoples. Litterature: for Carl V. Hartman biography, see e.g. Staffan Brunius, Carl V. Hartman; svensk arkeolog - etnograf i Centralamerika, LAIS (1984); for Precolumbian art of Costa Rica, see e.g. exhibition catalogue (Detroit) Between Continents / Between Seas, Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica (1981). SB, 2012-04-17.
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