10/14/2026
In time for Hispanic Heritage Month, Peabody Museum Associate Curator Diana Zlatanovski describes a new exhibit case featuring Taíno carvings.
Indigenous Taíno people called the island of Borikén home when the Spanish arrived on its shores in 1493. Now known as Puerto Rico, the island's history includes generations of Taíno, African, and European descendants, along with the diverse communities that followed. A newly installed exhibit case at the Peabody—Taken, Traded, Remembered: Journeys of Puerto Rican Collections— features Taíno stone carvings and other archaeological collections from Puerto Rico, tracing their provenance and how they came to the museum.
Found in Utuado, this Taíno stone carving was sold by Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste to archaeologists Samuel and Rachel Lothrop between 1915-1916. The Lothrops then donated it, along with other archaeological objects they collected in Puerto Rico, to the Peabody Museum.
Coll y Toste was a Puerto Rican doctor based in Arecibo. He was also an author and publisher of the journal Boletín Histórico de Puerto Rico, and served as the official Historian of Puerto Rico. Coll y Toste published this same carving in his book Prehistoria de Puerto Rico in 1907, which tells us he had collected it at least a few years before selling it to the Lothrops. Coll y Toste’s interpretation of it is upside down of how we have it shown here—he believed it represented a fish. It is possible the stone was carved to be viewed in both directions, as duality often appears in Taino art.
Researching and documenting objects’ biographies, or provenance, can help us to reconnect them with communities as well as understand part of Puerto Rico’s history and what events or people may have influenced the movement of collections. This exhibit was developed through my Spring 2026 museum practicum course on studying provenance and includes research contributions by graduate student Luis Daniel Beauchamp (Harvard ’26). A digital version is available online at tinyurl.com/PeabodyPuertoRico
