Woman’s Side-Fold Dress
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.A bison hide serves as the foundation for this side-fold dress, a rare and early type of garment produced by Plains women. The artist used porcupine and bird quills to create traditional geometric designs. To make the dress, she folded the hide in half, turned down the yoke, and sewed up the left side. As a finishing touch, she added costly materials obtained through trade with Europeans—glass beads from Venice, brass buttons from England, and cowrie shells from the Pacific Ocean.
Artwork Details
- Title: Woman’s Side-Fold Dress
- Date: 1800–1825
- Geography: United States, Central Plains
- Culture: Probably Lakota or Cheyenne
- Medium: Native-tanned leather, porcupine and bird quills, brass buttons, cowrie shells, glass beads, metal cones, horsehair, plant fiber, woven cotton tape, wool cloth
- Dimensions: Length: 49 1/4 in. (125.1 cm)
Width: 29 1/2 in. (74.9 cm) - Classification: Hide-Costumes
- Credit Line: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of the Heirs of David Kimball, 1899 (99-12-10/53047)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing