In 2004, SNOMNH received a Museums for America/Supporting Lifelong Learning Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support a project titled One Hundred Summers: A Kiowa Calendar Record. The project abstract, adapted for this site, reads as follows:
The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma will partner with the University of Nebraska Press and Dr. Candace Greene, a staff anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History on a museum publication project. One Hundred Summers: A Kiowa Calendar Record will feature drawings in colored pencil executed on 80 loose sheets by
the Kiowa artist Silver Horn. As a published book, the images will be reproduced in high-quality color illustrations, along with an interpretive essay and annotations that explain the cultural and historical contexts of the events pictured. Only recently discovered and added to the museum’s collection, the calendar chronicles Kiowa life between 1828 and 1929. Aimed at a wide audience,
the book will be supplemented by a teacher’s guide, images, and lesson plans to facilitate its use by K through 12 teachers. This grant will facilitate color reproduction of the images and will support consultations with Kiowa advisors, social studies teachers, and a curriculum writer. The supplementary materials will be made available through the museum’s Web site and will be cross-promoted by the museum and the University of Nebraska Press.
Work on this project is now complete and the related book has now been published by the University of Nebraska Press. The Teacher Resource Site offers a set of lesson plans, supplementary maps and essays, a copy of the gallery guide from the SNOMNH exhibition, and an full set of images of the entire Silver Horn Calendar. Find all of these resources here on the SNOMNH website..
An earlier digital resource on Kiowa drawings, also compiled by Dr. Greene, is available on the website of the National Anthropological Archives here.
An article in Spring 2002 issues of Sooner Magazine (22.3) by Linda Coldwell titled “The Silver Horn Legacy” describes the discovery of Silver Horn’s calendar as part of the larger Nelia Mae Robers Collection, a very important donation of Native American objects to the Division of Ethnology at SNOMNH. The article can be found online here.
Paper conservation of the Silver Horn calendar document, together with two Cheyenne ledger books also in the SNOMNH collections, has been supported by a Save American’s Treasures grant.
