Costume belt from Glory: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Leather belt from the 1989 film Glory. The film, directed by Edward Zwick, features Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, and Morgan Freeman. Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Private Silas Tripp.

Glory was the first film to illustrate the involvement of African American soldiers in the Civil War. The film follows the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first African American Union regiment organized in the North during the Civil War, and culminates in the Battle at Fort Wagner. A re-enactor wore this Civil War uniform costume during the scenes depicting the Battle at Fort Wagner

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: around
• date made: around 1988
• Object Name: belt
• Physical Description: leather (overall material)
• Physical Description: brass (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 39 in x 1 3/4 in; 99.06 cm x 4.445 cm
• Measurements: part: belt buckle: 2 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm
• Measurements: part: scabbard: 3 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; 8.89 cm x 8.89 cm
• Measurements: part: saber: 21 3/4 in x 3 3/4 in; 55.245 cm x 9.525 cm
• place made: United States: New Jersey, Newark
• Subject: African American History
• Subject: Costume
• Subject: Movie
• Subject: Entertainment, Film
• ID Number: 2013.0085.09
• accession number: 2013.0085
• catalog number: 2013.0085.09
• Credit Line: In honor of Edith Slater and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.