shirt dress, woman's

shirt dress, woman's

shirt dress, woman's

top image
Images
Introduction

A shirt dress, woman's, with white polka dots and red appliqued cloth edging, collected by Dr. Edward Sapir, 1914, Onkwehonwe (Iroquois, Hodenosaunee), Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario, 1870s - 1900s through Chief John Gibson.

Nation of Maker: Hodenosaunee/Haudenosaunee
Nation of Origin

Hodenosaunee: Purchased from the community museum documentation

Place of Origin: Six Nations of the Grand River Territory
Date Made or Date Range: 1870s to 1900s
Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

Jameson Brant's research

Materials

woman's dress, medium blue cotton with white polka dots (tiny). Collar is a different patterned material, also dotted. Red appliqued cotton cloth around the collar and around the front seams and around the hem. white beads, red cotton strip as edge binding

Techniques or Format

Two front panels whose mode of attachment is not visible, they are composed of a separate yoke and a gathered panel attached to the yoke. There are side seams, the back is made of a yoke that comes down almost to the back of the waist. A gathered panel comes down to form the skirt at the waist. Separate pieces of cloth form an attached collar and cuffs. The gathering of the dress at the neck where it attaches to this band is unusual. The cuffs are lined with the same material as makes up the collar. Two-bead edging around the appliqued areas. Ribbon tacking appears to have been forgotten. Mix of machine and hand sewing.

Motifs and Patterns

the appliqued red cloth edging is cut into a repeat contour of double saw-tooth triangles alternating with a straight line. Ruth Phillips noted that this pattern is also found in Cree and northern Anishinaabe work.

Other Notes

Catalogue card notes that "the skirt is unquestionably older than the gown. The latter was probably made in traditional style. " Research into the correspondence files between Edward Sapir and Chief John Gibson suggests that this may not be the case and that this dress and the skirt acquired with it may have been made at the same time.

Condition: now badly faded from overexposure to light during 1970s, when it was on display in the old Victoria Museum Iroquois Hall for fourteen years.
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

museum documentation

Current Location: Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa, Canada
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: III-I-1024a
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1911
Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Sapir, E. through Chief John Gibson
GKS Reference Number: 25082
How to Cite this Item

Item to be cited by catalog number, collection and institution.

Record Creation Context

GRASAC sponsored research trip to the CMC, June 16 to 20. Supported by the SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant, 2007-2010

Record Creation Notes/Observations

Record created by Jameson Brant as part of a research project for ARTH 5210, a master's seminar in art history given by Ruth Phillips at Carleton University, fall term 2010-11. A basic record for the dress had been created previously by a GRASAC team including Ruth Phillips (RP), Judy Hall (JH), Anne de Stecher (AS), Heidi Bohaker (HB), Aaron Mills (AM), Janis Monture (JM), John Moses (JMoses) and Jameson Brant (JBrant).

Approximate Place of Origin

43.0703, -80.1184

Do You Have Knowledge to Contribute? Share with Us.