American Indian Art

Through the efforts of Harold D. Bugbee--whom she met at Taos--Susan Janney Allen of Haverford, Pennsylvania, gave her American Indian collection in memory of her parents, Samuel L. and Sarah H. Allen of Philadelphia in 1911. 

In 1934, Allen decided to lend some of her collection for exhibition at the Museum writing to Harold Bugbee in April: "[I] feel quite sure you can make a very attractive and worthwhile display, which will appeal to the average visitor, and also be of educational value, too." Later that year Allen began donating her collection to the Society, and after subsequent gifts, by 1941 the Susan J. Allen Collection came to number over 2,000 objects. This includes some 250 of the finest baskets in the Society's collection (and in any public collection in the United States), beadwork, pottery, paintings, silver, and katsina dolls. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website