Silver Latin cross, engraved with cross-hatch lines running throughout the cross with rounded bulbous tips. Cross also has a circular hole on the top for wearing and its surface is not smooth, it is pitted and grooved.
Created by John Kinzie, this silver cross was one of the barter silver items traded with the Native Americans and worn by them as jewelry. Canadian John Kinzie was an agent of the American Fur Company, which established operations in Chicago in 1816. Being a frontiersman, he made trade silver as a form of income.
Curatorial Statement
This silver cross, engraved with cross-hatch lines and notched tips was created by frontiersman, John Kinzie to trade. The American Fur Company established operations in Chicago and one of their agents included the Canadian John Kinzie, a frontiersman who also made trade silver. The company led John Kinzie to trade his works with Native Americans such as Shabonna, a Potawatomi-Ottawa chief who lived south of Chicago near the Kankakee River.The American Fur Company, established in 1808 by John Jacob Astor to compete with the powerful Canadian North West and Hudson Bay companies, practically took control of the fur trade in the United States following the War of 1812. It quickly became known for its ruthless practice of buying out or destroying the competition, as most private traders in Chicago soon found out. It appointed John Kinzie and Antoine Deschamps as its first agents in northern Illinois, and they reported to the company's headquarters on Mackinac Island. Their field of operations covered northeastern Illinois and the Illinois River. In 1819, Jean-Baptiste Beaubien was brought in to assist Kinzie and eventually became head of the outfit.
