Carved powder horn exhibit extended
Due to popular demand, the Fort Pitt Museum, part of the Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz History Center museum system, will extend its “From Maps to Mermaids: Carved Powder Horns in Early America” exhibition through the end of 2018.
The exhibition, which will be on display through Dec. 31, showcases delicately-carved powder horns and explores the stories behind them.
Used by soldiers on the American frontier to keep gunpowder dry, powder horns also served as a blank canvas on which they could leave their mark. Soldiers etched names, dates, maps, war records and whimsical figures into the objects. Surviving in large numbers, carved powder horns represent early American folk art in its purest form.
A dozen new artifacts from the collection of Jay Hopkins will be displayed in the exhibit in early September. The new artifacts represent powder horns made by professional horners, combmakers and turners in a common style used in the mid- to late-18th century from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas.
The exhibit is the winner of a 2018 Institutional Award from PA Museums.
Fort Pitt Museum admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors (62+), $4.50 for students and children ages 6-17, and free for History Center members and children ages 5 and under. Active duty and retired military receive $2 off admission.
The Fort Pitt Museum, built in a recreated bastion of the British fort originally constructed in 1759, focuses on the critical role that Western Pennsylvania played during the French & Indian War, the American Revolution and the founding of Pittsburgh. The Fort Pitt Museum is located in Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh. The Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, operates the Fort Pitt Museum in partnership with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). For more information, visit www.heinzhistorycenter.org/fort-pitt.