Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians

William C. Orchard's Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians remains a foundational technical study of its subject. Drawing on the collections of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York, Orchard traces the materials and methods of Native beadwork from shell, bone, and quill to the trade beads introduced after European contact, illustrating loom techniques, applique, and netting with detailed figures and plates. His discussion of early trade beads even reaches into the Southwest, noting glass beads recovered from sixteenth-century sites in New Mexico and Arizona.

First issued in 1929, the work was reprinted by the Heye Foundation in this second edition of 1975, keeping a scarce reference in the hands of craftspeople and scholars. The bright period cover with its beadwork-pattern borders is distinctive, and this copy retains the printed title page with the Heye Foundation seal. As a long-standing standard on a craft practiced across Native North America, a complete copy like this one is worth documenting for any working library.