Dance Apron And Leggings Set: Leggings
date: label: Accession Date
content: 2 Jul 1928
name: label: Donor Name
content: Charles H. Popenoe
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "WOVEN FROM GOAT FLEECE WITH PAINTED (DYED) DESIGNS IN BLACK, YELLOW AND GREEN. TWO ROWS OF PUFFIN BEAK BEADS AT ENDS OF BUCKSKIN FRINGE BORDER. RARE AND VALUABLE SPECIMEN. 4/18/1967: LOANED TO VANCOUVER ART GALL., 12/13/1967 RETURNED BY VANCOUVER. LOAN CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988, LOAN RETURNED JAN 21, 1993. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 290, P. 219." FROM CROSSROADS CATALOGUE: "A WRAPAROUND APRON AND DECORATED LEGGINGS WERE OFTEN WORN BY THE NOBILITY ALONG WITH A CHILKAT BLANKET ON CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS. THE WOVEN PIECES OF THIS SET (OF DANCE APRON AND LEGGINGS) WERE ORIGINALLY PART OF A SINGLE BLANKET DEPICTING A DIVING KILLER WHALE, WHICH WAS PROBABLY CUT UP AND DISTRIBUTED TO GUESTS DURING A GREAT MEMORIAL POTLATCH. THE WOVEN PIECES HAVE BEEN EXTENDED WITH TRADE BLANKET MATERIAL AND BORDERED WITH SKIN FRINGES. PUFFIN BEAKS ATTACHED TO THE FRINGES RATTLED TOGETHER WITH THE MOVEMENTS OF THE DANCER."" Leggings illus. Fig. G, after p. 48 in The Chilkat Dancing Blanket, by Cheryl Samuel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.
label: Notes
content: Description: Wraparound leggings decorated with a stylized formline design woven in white, black, blue, and yellow dyed wool. The woven piece has been widened by the addition of wool trade blanket material and bordered with skin fringes. Puffin beaks are attached to the fringes. Materials and Construction: Wool, cotton, cedar bark, hide, and Puffin beaks were used to fabricate the leggings. Fitzhugh and Crowell suggest that the leggings were once part of a larger Chilkat blanket, which was probably cut up and distributed to guests during a great memorial potlatch. The cut edges of the woven fabric are trimmed with black silk piping. Rectangular black wool panels have been sewn to the sides of the leggings. A strip of hide is sewn along the sides of each legging and cut into a fringe. Puffin beaks have been stitched to the inside edge of the hide, adjacent to the weaving and make a rattling sound when the leggings move. One of the leggings has a narrow strip of hide sewn to the top of the legging which has also been cut into fringe. A single Puffin beak is sewn into one end of the hide fringe in this area. The bottom edge of the leggings taper to a fish tail like extension that would partially cover the top of the foot. Hide and canvas strips, sewn at the top, middle and bottom of each side were used to tie the leggings to the wearer.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=349 , retrieved 11-29-2011: Leggings These dance leggings, like the accompanying apron, feature pieces that were cut from a Chilkat-style mountain goat wool blanket. Sections from the original weaving were sewn onto commercial wool cloth and decorated with puffin beaks and leather fringes. The tail-shaped flaps at the bottom of the leggings rested on top of the dancer's moccasins.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. E341202-0 Apron and E341202-1 Leggings are both on loan.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 17 Mar 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Southeast, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tlingit, Chilkat
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 102152
label: USNM Number
content: E341202-1
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Legging
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 38 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 30 cm