Wedding Coat

Wedding Coat

1900s
Culture
Osage
Country
United States
Object
coat, wedding
Medium
Cloth and metal
Accession Number
1963.157
Credit Line
Denver Art Museum

Unknown Osage Artist
Wedding Coat, 1900s
Cloth and metal
42" x 61"
Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition fund, 1963.157
Photography (c) Denver Art Museum

Dimensions
length: 42 in, 106.6800 cm; width: 61 in, 154.9400 cm
Department
Native Arts
Collection
Indigenous Arts of North America
This coat is a unique blending of native and non-native fashion. The coat itself is a woolen military-style coat manufactured in the 1800s for U.S. soldiers. These coats were sometimes given to Osage men as government gifts when delegations traveled to Washington, D.C. Back home, Osage women creatively decorated them with elaborate ribbonwork and adopted them as wedding coats. Flamboyant headdresses fashioned from feather dusters completed the outfit.
Known Provenance
Shorty Quillen, Pawnee OK, before 1963; purchased 1963 by the Denver Art Museum
Exhibition History
  • "Art of the Osage," Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, 3/13/2004-10/8/2004
  • "Art Along the Rivers: A Bicentennial Celebration" - Saint Louis Art Museum, 10/3/21- 1/9/22