Boy's Vest (c. 1880): Art, History and Details

Boy's Vest (c. 1880) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

For centuries, beautiful garments and objects have held great meaning for the native groups of the Great Plains. For instance, the Lakota (Sioux) ceremonially intone something sacred wears me. That is, humans don powerful garments but are worn, animated, and protected by the sacred forces within their materials and imagery. By 1700 European Americans began to make their presence felt in the region, and Plains people creatively adopted European materials and garment types into their wardrobes. By 1870 most Plains people had been forced onto reservations, and traditional life shattered—especially for men. The garments on display here all were made after that date.

Object facts

• Title: Boy's Vest
• Date: c. 1880
• Culture: Plains, Lakota (Sioux), 19th century
• Type: Garment
• Technique: beadwork
• Dimensions: Average: 45.7 x 38.8 cm (18 x 15 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Native North American
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1982.62

Collection credit

James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Year in Review 1982," Bulletin, LXX (January 1983).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.