The Collection of Feather Ornaments from Enrique Stanko Vráz’s Journey across Equatorial America

Abstract

Enrique Stanko Vráz (1860–1932) was a multifaceted individual known for his roles as a traveller, photographer, hunter, and collector of natural history specimens and artifacts from non-European cultures. While travelling through equatorial South America up the Amazon River from 1892 to 1893, he amassed a remarkable collection of four hundred ethnographic artifacts from two dozen groups of Indigenous peoples. More than one hundred and thirty years after the acquisition of this collection by the Náprstek Museum, the first part of the collection is published – a collection of feather ornaments. Particular attention is paid to the circumstances of the acquisition of the objects from the Indigenous peoples, their use by the ethnic groups visited, their transport to Europe and their further handling. The inspirational sources of E. S. Vráz’s ideas, which were also reflected in his contact with the Indigenous people and his collecting activities, are briefly presented.