Buckskin Dress
date: label: Accession Date
content: 13 Aug 1956
label: Collection Date
content: July? 1877
name: label: Collector
content: Gen. George M. Sternberg
label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Lewis F. Colbert
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Buckskin or doeskins with multiple seams, sinew sewn - parallel vertical seams at sides; from upper sleeve ends to neck opening, also seams extending from sleeve sides; pieced at bottom, which with tailoring produces a flare at sides towards bottom. Fringed (double) at sides and bottom. Neck section doubled under and sewn; characteristic Nez Perce lozenge strip extending downward from center of neck opening front and rear. Embroidered panels of variously colored glass beads extend from sleeve ends to neck opening. Additional pendant strands of beads - tubular and cut - glass terminating in long buckskin fringes, reach downwards from embroidered yoke. Small holes in the skin garment have been patched with red strouding sewn with sinew thread. Necklace of strip of buckskin with pendent buckskin fringes terminating in sheet iron cones is looped at intervals to neck opening. History: garment had been given by Gen. George N. Sternberg, U.S.A., to father of donor, Appleton P. Clark, Sr. prior to 1906. Gen. Sternberg was purportedly in Nez Perce country about 1877.
label: Notes
content: MATERIALS: DEERSKIN, WOOL CLOTH, GLASS BEADS, YELLOW PIGMENT, SEWN PRIMARILY WITH BUCKSKIN THONGS WITH SOME SINEW AND COTTON THREAD. - MARGARET MATHEWSON & F. PICKERING 1-28-1999. DRESS WEIGHS 9.5 LB.. COLLECTOR GEORGE STERNBERG WAS PRESENT AT BATTLE OF THE CLEARWATER, IDAHO TERRITORY ON JULY 11-12, 1877. AFTER THE BATTLE HE SECURED SEVERAL THINGS, INCLUDING THIS DRESS, RETRIEVED FROM THE ABANDONED NEZ PERCE CACHES. -STEVEN L. GRAFE 1997. SEE PROCESSING LAB ACCESSION FILE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 7, p. 67 in Grafe, Steven L., 1999, "Nez Perce Decorative Art of the 1870s," American Indian Art Magazine, 24(4). Identified there: woman's dress, deer hide, wool cloth, glass beads, yellow pigment, buckskin thongs and cotton threads, 55 1/8" long (140 cm.).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Jun 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Idaho Territory / Idaho, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Nez Perce (Nimiipuu)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 211704
label: USNM Number
content: E394226-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Dress
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 140 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 155 cm