Chief's Dress Shirt Item Number: 50.67.7a from the Brooklyn Museum
Description
This dress shirt matches leggings 50.67.7b-c. A lack of ornamentation suggests it may be unfinished (compare this sparse ornamentation to 50.67.4). The shirt has no pierce work, loom-woven quillwork, or ornamentation on the cuffs. At the neck flap, however, there is an outline of blue beads and at intervals below, an additional two and three bead linear arrangement. There are simply decorated rosettes of concentric rings on either side with centers of plain white skin. Going outward from these centers are rings of quills: light blue; white; red; and a combination of blue and yellow. Following the quills is a ring of white skin, and an outer circle of blue beads. When cleaned in 1992, a fringe damaged by old insect damage became detached at the center of the proper left shoulder. The edges of the torn section were backed and reattached.
Credit Line
Henry L. Batterman Fund and Frank Sherman Benson Fund
Item History
- Made between 1800 and 1825
What
- Name
- Chief's Dress Shirt
- Identification Number
- 50.67.7a
- Type of Item
- shirt and dress
- Material
- buckskin, glass bead, dyed hair, porcupine quill and thread
- Overall
- length 39.0 in, width 52.0 in
Who
- Culture
- Red River Metis, Yanktonai, Nakota and Sioux
Where
- Holding Institution
- Brooklyn Museum
When
- Creation Date
- between 1800 and 1825
Other
- Classification
- Clothing