The History of Beads ~Fun Facts~

Did you know the history of beads dates back as far as 40,000 years ago? Moreover, since then beads have been made by every culture.
Have you ever heard the term trade beads? This refers to glass seed beads because Columbus' first trade with the people of the Americas included glass beads. These beads helped Columbus gain the confidence and admiration of the native people, setting the pattern for beads to become an essential and valuable trade item.
Every society has had the ability to produce beads using everything from plant seeds to a variety of stones. While plant seeds required little technology to create beads, such material as: gemstones, bone and semi-precious stones required a very labor intensive process just to create one bead. In addition to production issues, beads were produced based upon the resources of a particular geographic location. For example, in North America beads were manufactured in: gold, jade, bone, blue-green stone turquoise and hand polished shell. In 1100 A.D. marine shells coming from Florida were traded up north and made into beads in Illinois and distributed to Mississippi, Ohio and the Illinois River valley.
With the advent of European trade, and the Hudson Bay Company adding beads as a standard trading commodity, beadwork became a predominant craft and an historical pastime. Friends and family would bead together around the table while discussing current issues and socializing.

Did you know that in 1622, a glass factory was built near Jamestown, Virginia? However, less than a year later the factory was burned down during a raiding party of Indians. Very few of the beads made in the Jamestown factory are believed to exist today. Even before that, Egyptians were making glass beads as early as 1365 B.C. In addition, several thousand-year old glass factories in Lebanon are still in production. There is also evidence that China has been making and exporting glass beads for centuries has been revealed in archaeology sites. Glass and Brass beads have been found in burial sites of many cultures: Egyptian tombs, Roman catacombs, Saxon, African, and American Indian.

Venetian Glass Trade Beads refer to beads being produced in Venice Italy. It's no secret the Italians know how to produce great beads. In fact, Venetians pretty much monopolized the industry starting from 1224 A.D. In 1291 a large portion of the Venetian glass industry was moved north to the Island of Murano because city officials feared the glass furnaces poised a danger to the city. Thus the Murano Glass Beads was introduced. By the 1500's demand was so great for the Italian beads that the Venetians had to outsource to Bohemia (Czechoslovakia). Here glass tubes were broken into beads, polished, and sent back to Venice. Czechoslovakia had been known for making glassware since the twelfth century and had an abundance of workers and supplies. Soon many of the Bohemian workers traveled to Murano to work in the factories. These workers brought their skills and knowledge back to Bohemia and by the mid 1800s, Czechoslovakia was producing more glass beads than Italy.

Many history books claim the Dutch bought Manhattan for twenty-four dollars worth of trade beads. This story first appeared in Martha Lamb's book on New York history in 1877, which was two hundred and fifty years after the purchase. Since her book was published, most historians have quoted it. Manhattan was purchased with trade goods, but there is no evidence that trade beads were more than a small part of the exchanged items. - Peter Francis, Jr. Bead Research Center.

China was also a source of glass trade beads. Studies by Peter Francis, Jr., Director of the Center for Bead Research, has shown that beads from China were brought to Mexico with the Spanish galleon trade. This trade route linked Chinese ports with Manila and Acapulco, and from there to the rest of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Russians acquired Chinese beads from trading post on the Mongolian border and transported them to Alaska. A few Chinese glass beads have been found along with Venetian beads on Spanish colonial 17th century sites…one of America's top archaeologist, David Hurst Thomas, excavated over 62,000 beads from St. Catherine, the northern most Spanish mission on the Atlantic coast