Pot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stews and soups were staples of the colonial diet, so cooking pots such as this example would have seen daily use. With no tripod base to stand on, this pot had to be hung over the fire from a trammel. Similar pots were made early in the colonial era at the Saugus Iron Works outside Boston (in operation from 1644 to 1670).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art