Skip Navigation

Chief's Warrior Shirt

Arts of the Americas

MEDIUM Hide, quills, hair, beads, pigment, cloth, cotton thread
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
DATES early 19th century
DIMENSIONS 44 x 69 1/4 in. (111.8 x 175.9 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER 50.67.5a
CREDIT LINE Henry L. Batterman Fund and Frank Sherman Benson Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Man's shirt, very early, pre 1830s Blackfoot. The fringe along the sleeves and shirt tail is the remnants of ermine and bits can still be seen. The painted figures of people are probably indicative of dead people or people the warrior killed. Should be called a War Shirt not a dress shirt. The quillwork is bird quill. Quillwork is similar to Mandan Hidatsa. Sometimes dots that are rounded indicate hailstones but then they are organized in a scattered fashion more like splashes. There are many anomalies in the quill/bead design.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Blackfoot, Piegan. Chief's Warrior Shirt, early 19th century. Hide, quills, hair, beads, pigment, cloth, cotton thread, 44 x 69 1/4 in. (111.8 x 175.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Henry L. Batterman Fund and Frank Sherman Benson Fund, 50.67.5a. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.50.67.5a_view1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, CUR.50.67.5a_view1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
Blackfoot, Piegan. <em>Chief's Warrior Shirt</em>, early 19th century. Hide, quills, hair, beads, pigment, cloth, cotton thread, 44 x 69 1/4 in. (111.8 x 175.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Henry L. Batterman Fund and Frank Sherman Benson Fund, 50.67.5a. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.50.67.5a_view1.jpg)