Boy's shirt
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Among nineteenth-century Northern Plains communities, abstract animals and landscape interpretations on children’s clothing signified connection, protection, or status. On this boy’s shirt, mirroring designs are beaded with extended rows using an overlay, or spot-stitch, and centered by vivid color-block diamonds with contrasting outlines surrounded by brilliant blue—a composition and palette characteristic of Apsáalooke women’s beadwork. Bright bands across the arms were beaded in flat sections onto leather, then custom-stitched together according to the child’s size.
Artwork Details
- Title: Boy's shirt
- Date: ca. 1870
- Geography: Made in Montana, United States
- Culture: Apsáalooke/Crow, Native American
- Medium: Hide, glass, cotton, wool, sinew, cotton thread
- Dimensions: H. 21 5/16 × W. 31 1/2 in. (54.1 × 80 cm)
- Credit Line: On loan from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing