[NATIVE AMERICAN] Early 20th c. Clothing w/ Eastern Woodland Style Beadwork

Selection of early 20th c. clothing w/ Eastern Woodland style beadwork. Over 25 articles of clothing are included, including full outfits, dresses, tunics, belts, and various accoutrements.

These costumes were likely used in a vaudeville performance or in one of the many “Wild West” shows popular in the late 19th/early 20th century. Wild West shows depicted scenes and characters from the American Old West, typically featuring a mix of staged rodeo-style events, such as horseback riding, sharpshooting, and buffalo hunting, as well as reenactments of famous events, such as stagecoach holdups and Indian attacks. The shows were intended to be both entertaining and educational, providing audiences with a romanticized version of the "Wild West" that was popular in popular culture at the time. Many of the performers in Wild West shows were cowboys, cowgirls, and Native American people who had actually lived through the era they were depicting, giving the shows an element of authenticity.

[Native American, Indian, Old West] [George A. Custer, Bill Cody, Buffalo Bill]