Erotic Art in North America: Native & Settler Art

All works featured are from Milton Simpson’s Folk Erotica: Celebrating Centuries of Erotic Americana (1994). The first row contains erotic art from the indigenous peoples of North America (Simpson, 1994). The earliest images show the male virility and ability to conquest (Simpson, 1994). The later creation of pipes incorporated cleverness, homoeroticism, and anal intercourse (Simpson, 1994).

Ceramic Bowl. A.D. 700-1100. Image shows a possible early example of sex education (p. 16-17)

Ceramic Bowl. A.D. 500. Representation of Mimbres' culture and an unplanned homosexual encounter (p. 16)

Pipe Bowl. 1880, Woodlands. The hole between the legs is for pipe stem insertion (p. 32-33)

Pipe Bowl. mid-19th century, probably Pawnee. Two piece catlinita bowl and shank with heterosexual figures engaged in anal intercourse (p. 32)

The bottom row features artwork created by the colonial settlers of North America. There was a resurgence of sexual trends at the start of the 20th century that challenged the Victorian morals of the time before (Simpson, 1994). Social rules changed and became more relaxed, movies showed male and female leads, and bar halls opened for dancing and drinking (Simpson, 1994). The fifties and eighties/nineties are two eras where American settlers experienced a push back to the liberal growth of the eras just before them (Simpson, 1994). People perceived the sexual expression to be a loosening of morals due to the expansion of the pornography industry and the start of the AIDS epidemic (Simpson, 1994). From the sexual revolution and rights fought for in the sixties, erotic folk artwork grew, and self-taught artists became famous (Simpson, 1994).

Toby Pitchers. 1810. American take on the fictional character Toby Eillpot who is known for his drinking (p. 29)

Adam and Eve. 1975. Carved by preacher, Edgar Tolson, who made many other carvings of biblical themes over his lifetime (p. 117)

Cradle of Love. c.1950. George Mesisco used embroidery on cardboard to create this erotic image (p. 99)

Hermaphrodite. 1960. This figurine was carved by a prison inmate and is kept in The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (p.98)