Back piece for Bahamas Junkanoo Revue costume: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The back piece of a man's costume for the Bahamas Junkanoo Revue, a junkanoo troupe in Miami, Florida.

The back piece is pear shaped and features an intricate design of paisley shapes, diamonds, triangular shapes, and curved shapes in red, white, yellow, and blue with red, blue, gold, and clear colored beads and gemstones. Several of the shapes are also covered in glitter. At the top center of the back piece are long red and black striped feathers tipped with smaller yellow feathers. When worn, these feathers are the highest point of the costume extending above the wearer's head. Three layers of feathers border the back piece. There are three layers of feathers on the outer edge of each hip extension. The innermost layer is yellow with slightly longer red feathers behind the yellow feathers, and light blue ostrich feathers behind the red feathers. Gold sequins are placed throughout the layers of feathers. The back of the piece is red with a double border of gold beaded trimming going around a series of pointed shapes. There is a cutout opening in the bottom half. The back piece attaches to the rods of the costume's harness (2015.140.7).

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2015
• Designed by: Wilshire Dames, Bahamian
• Type: ceremonial costume
• Medium: cardboard, tissue paper, sequin, paper, feathers, paint, Glass bead, plastic, glitter, and glue
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 54 × 44 × 4 in. (137.2 × 111.8 × 10.2 cm)
• Place made: Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, North and Central America
• Cultural Place: Bahamas, Caribbean, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Dance
• Topic: Folklife
• Topic: Holidays and festivals
• Object number: 2015.140.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.