METC: Special Exhibits

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Special Exhibits

New Exhibit Opens February 2, runs through 2010

LENAPE:
Tools & Daily Living

We invite visitors to learn about the Lenape (le NAH pay), the indigenous Indians who lived on the land now known as New Jersey. You will discover how the Lenape lived, worked and played prior to European influences. Through various displays of the tools and artifacts, visitors will gain an understanding of what it was like to live in New Jersey as a member of a Lenape tribe.

…they live by hunting fish and birds, which they catch with bows and snares. They make the bows of hard wood, the arrows of reeds, and at the point they put the bones of fish and other animals. The wild animals here are much more ferocious than in Europe because they are continually being molested by hunters.

-- First European contact with the Lenape
as noted in The Written Record of the
Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazano

Objects on display include:

small and large ceramic vessels
burl bowls and baskets for storage and decoration
a dugout canoe used for fishing and transportation
tools used for working with wood, hunting and gardening
historic and contemporary Lenape clothing
ceremonial objects

Lenape, meaning “ordinary folk,” had been living here for over 1000 years before Europeans first visited in 1524. The Lenape land Lenapehoking covered an area that included all of New Jersey, as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut. The longer term “Lenni-Lenape” was sometime used, but is now thought to be redundant. The Lenape were also called Delaware Indians by the Europeans. This name at first referred to just the people living along the Delaware River, but quickly came to mean all the Lenape.

The Lenape made their tools from stones, bones, plants and trees. With these basic materials they were able to create and do everything they needed for daily living. Stones were sharpened to make axes, knives and arrowheads. Bones were fashioned into fishing hooks and needles.

Through the use of these tools, plant fibers were made into baskets, bottles and rope. Wood was carved into bowls and canoes.

The Lenape coiled clay to
construct vessels of all sizes

Deer skins became clothing and moccasins.

The Lenape lived in villages of wigwams and long houses crafted from bent saplings covered in bark or reed mats. They traveled around to fish or hunt, but largely stayed put in the growing season to tend to the three-sisters: corn, squash, and beans.

Many of these old planting fields, cleared with stone tools and fire, became the sites of European villages in the early 1600s. Some of these places still exist with Lenape names.

The Museum’s aim is to tell of the tasks and tools of daily life in early America. It explores the things people made to survive, prosper and decorate their days. Lenape: Tools & Daily Living focuses on the earliest people who lived in this area, the native Lenape.

Lenape: Tools & Daily Living will remain open to the public through the year 2010,
and will offer visitors many unique and interesting programs throughout its duration.

New Exhibit Opens February 2, runs through 2010
LENAPE: Tools & Daily Living
We invite visitors to learn about the Lenape (le NAH pay), the indigenous Indians who lived on the land now known as New Jersey. You will discover how the Lenape lived, worked and played prior to European influences. Through various displays of the tools and artifacts, visitors will gain an understanding of what it was like to live in New Jersey as a member of a Lenape tribe.

…they live by hunting fish and birds, which they catch with bows and snares. They make the bows of hard wood, the arrows of reeds, and at the point they put the bones of fish and other animals. The wild animals here are much more ferocious than in Europe because they are continually being molested by hunters. -- First European contact with the Lenape as noted in The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazano
			Objects on display include:
			small and large ceramic vessels burl bowls and baskets for storage and decoration a dugout canoe used for fishing and transportation tools used for working with wood, hunting and gardening historic and contemporary Lenape clothing ceremonial objects
Lenape, meaning “ordinary folk,” had been living here for over 1000 years before Europeans first visited in 1524. The Lenape land Lenapehoking covered an area that included all of New Jersey, as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut. The longer term “Lenni-Lenape” was sometime used, but is now thought to be redundant. The Lenape were also called Delaware Indians by the Europeans. This name at first referred to just the people living along the Delaware River, but quickly came to mean all the Lenape.
	The Lenape made their tools from stones, bones, plants and trees. With these basic materials they were able to create and do everything they needed for daily living. Stones were sharpened to make axes, knives and arrowheads. Bones were fashioned into fishing hooks and needles.

			Through the use of these tools, plant fibers were made into baskets, bottles and rope. Wood was carved into bowls and canoes. The Lenape coiled clay to construct vessels of all sizes Deer skins became clothing and moccasins.


		The Lenape lived in villages of wigwams and long houses crafted from bent saplings covered in bark or reed mats. They traveled around to fish or hunt, but largely stayed put in the growing season to tend to the three-sisters: corn, squash, and beans.
Many of these old planting fields, cleared with stone tools and fire, became the sites of European villages in the early 1600s. Some of these places still exist with Lenape names.
The Museum’s aim is to tell of the tasks and tools of daily life in early America. It explores the things people made to survive, prosper and decorate their days. Lenape: Tools & Daily Living focuses on the earliest people who lived in this area, the native Lenape.
Lenape: Tools & Daily Living will remain open to the public through the year 2010, and will offer visitors many unique and interesting programs throughout its duration.