Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Girls Dress: Dena’ina Athabaskan, ca 1880


Girls Dress
Dena’ina Athabaskan, ca 1880
Gift of Lucy and John Gospodnetich
2009-10-1

This caribou-skin dress was collected by Abram Brown Webber, who worked in Alaska in the salmon canning business in the late 1800s. Skin garments, similar to those worn for festive occasions by the Dena’ina, were also made on commission for non-Natives. After returning home from a trip to Alaska, Webber gave this dress to his daughter Pearl Webber (born around1885) when she was about ten years old, and it was subsequently passed through several generations of their family until it was donated to the museum in 2009.

The museum collection contains few other articles of children’s clothing, and so this reason too this dress is a very welcome addition. Too, while the museum has two other Dena’ina adult-sized garments of this period, this dress has a unique beaded “double-V” about the chest, as well as an unusual beaded collar. The museum collects objects both common objects, as well as pieces such as this exhibiting rare variations.


Alaska State Museum, 2009-10-1, Photo by Sara Boesser

1 comment:

  1. It was simple post yet I like it. Simplicity is beauty as many individual say. Thank you for sharing and I am looking forward on your next post.



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