Circa 1840
America
Hide, cotton, glass beads, sinew, quill: 45 inches long
Campbell House Museum
Descriptive Detail
Small by today’s standards and cut like a gentleman’s frock coat from the 1830s or 1840s, this beautiful garment is hand-made of brain-cured elk hide and sewn with sinew. The upper body of the coat is constructed of five pieces, three of which form the back with two curved seams running from shoulder to near the back center of the waist. Each sleeve is cut from two curving pieces. Piecing the parts of the coat uses the hides more efficiently and makes the coat more flexible. The seams along the sleeves, shoulder, and across the back of the coat are fringed with long strips of hide. Fringe also decorates the hem. The embellishment is made primarily of porcupine quills dyed red, yellow, and blue. Blue glass beads are used as spacers on the fringe. Such materials became available as trade developed with Europeans coming to this new land.
Local Historical Connections
American Indian in spirit and materials, the coat also shows European influence in its tailored design and in the collar and lapels wrapped in black cotton velveteen and the lining made of leaf-striped printed cotton. Like the coat, Robert Campbell represents the connection between Euro-American and Native American cultures. Coming to America in 1823 and making his way to St. Louis, it was his reading and writing skills that earned him a good job as a clerk. Health problems soon propelled him to seek the benefits of mountain air. Joining fur trader and famous mountain man Jedediah Smith led Campbell to become one himself. During the next ten years, he formed partnerships with the Indians, with fellow adventurers, and finally with William Sublette. He returned to St. Louis, not only a prosperous business man, but one who was greatly influenced by his interactions with Indians.
National Historical Connections
The hide coat, still in excellent condition, was a probably gift to Robert Campbell—other Indian artifacts including child’s clothing is in the collection. This intact garment allows us to study period dress, but writers and artists of the same period added greatly to our knowledge. Artists such as Alfred Jacob Miller, George Catlin, William Tylee Ranney, and Karl Bodmer depicted people of the American West including rugged mountain men battling the elements and Indians in ceremonial attire. Looking at these paintings and drawings, we find many of the same details as can be found in Robert Campbell’s hide coat. Campbell's letters to his family written, when he was out West, also contribute to our knowledge. Here is an example of the vivid writing that was widely read:
“His dress and appearance are equally singular. His skin, from constant exposure, assumes a hue almost as dark as that of the Aborigine, and his features and physical structure attain a rough and hardy cast. His hair, through inattention, becomes long, coarse and bushy, and loosely dangles upon his shoulders. His head is surmounted by a low crowned wool-hat, or a rude substitute of his own manufacture. His clothes are of buckskin, gaily fringed at the seams with strings of the same material, cut and made in a fashion peculiar to himself and associates. The deer and buffalo furnish him the required covering for his feet, which he fabricates at the impulse of want.”
This selection, from Rocky Mountain Life published in 1846 by Rufus Sage, provides us with detailed descriptions of the everyday attire of the "mountaineers,” trappers, and Indians he knew. We can only imagine how Robert Campbell might have looked in his mountain man days.
top^
next artifact}
|
|
