Ethnological Mask Collection

GROUP OF MEXICAN MASKS FROM THE CORDRY COLLECTION

Dates: 1950-1970

In 1979, the University of Arizona Foundation and the Arizona State Museum purchased over five hundred Mexican masks, part of the folk art collection of Donald and Dorothy Cordry.

Donald Cordry recorded information provided by dealers about the masks he acquired for his collection. Mexican mask scholars now question the reliability of this information about the makers, dances and proveniences. Nonetheless, researchers continue to use Cordry's collection and notes at the Arizona State Museum to help them learn more about mask making in Mexico.