shirt
- Museum number
- Am.9063
- Description
-
Shirt (with fringe) made of leather, human hair, horse hair, porcupine quills and glass beads.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 1.50 metres
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Width: 1.60 metres
- Curator's comments
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This war shirt is painted with classic tallies associated with war exploits. It features conventional human figures under the row of scalps attached to the left sleeve. Behind them a series of red and black stripes vertically cover the whole remaining surface of the sleeve. Under the hanging scalp locks are also visible regularly spaced black dots. The upper part of the body of the shirt is painted in dark colour (black?) and the lower part displays arrow motifs alternated to stripes in black and red. Because of this characteristic the shirt could be Dakota as the practice is associated with this group (see also: 'Hau Kola: the Plains Indian Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology' by Barbara Hail 1980).
The four tassels constituted by the animals skin's legs are fringed and mammal fur was left on each fringe. Leaving the fur of tail and legs on the animal skins is a typical feature of warrior society shirts. The right sleeve is painted with black marks. Both the front and the back flaps are painted in red and are trimmed with blue pony beads. The sleeves, were once decorated with a blue and white geometric pattern of which only the blue beads are today visible. One or two transparent white beads are visible where the pattern is missing. Two symmetrical quillwork strips decorated in white, red, and blue sit across the shoulders in a classic two-thread technique. (Max Carocci, 06/11/2008)
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Martin Schultz of the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt am Main considers this to be an shirt of pre-1840 vintage from a Sioux-speaking peoples. This age is indicated by the style of quillwork, beadwork and the shape of the seams. The painted designs on the shirt are of a slightly later style, and may either have been painted at a later date or perhaps suggest that the shirt is later than originally suspected, but made using old materials. (16/11/2009)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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2010 6 Jan-5 Apr, British Museum, Room 91, Warriors of the Plains: 200 years of Native North American honour and ritual
2012 22 Sep- 2013 13 Jan, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Warriors of the Plains
2013 25 May-3 Nov, Manchester Museum, Warriors of the Plains
- Acquisition date
- 1874
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Am.9063
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Am1874C1.9063 (old CDMS no.)
