A Collection of Bones

Among the artifacts preserved by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is the collection of animal bones O’Keeffe used as inspiration for many of her works.

This talk will present the zoo-archaeological results of a project of Museum Fellow Victoria Monagle, including a detailed overview and photos of which species and bone elements were identified within the collection and how they were portrayed in paintings by O’Keeffe.

Victoria Monagle is a 5th year Ph.D. student at the University of New Mexico. She specializes in Zooarchaeology and researches prehistoric dogs in the Pueblo Southwest.

Take a closer look:

Check out some of the bones collected by Georgia O’Keeffe on Collections Online.

Featured image: Sheep Skull with Horns (Ovis Skull with Horns). Bone, 8 x 13 x 10 1/2 inches. Gift of Juan and Anna Marie Hamilton. [2000.4.49] Photo by Victoria Monagle.

The presentation was recorded on September 2, 2020, as part of the Mornings with O’Keeffe lecture series.