Elements: What is the dress made of?
What Is the Dress Made of?
Globalization is not a new phenomenon. European nations began to explore, trade with, and colonize distant parts of the world during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A Plains Indian woman used materials from North America, Europe, and the Pacific to make this dress before 1825. Learn how she made the dress and where her materials originated by clicking on any of the elements indicated in the image; or explore this section in linear fashion using the text arrows flanking the section title on the navigation bar above.
Diagram of a side-fold dress, reverse view, detail
Magnified animal hair, possible elk, from the hide of the dress
Dyed porcupine quills on the body of the dress
Blue and white glass beads
An English brass button
Cowry shells (from the Maldives) on the back shoulder of the dress
Tufts of red wool trade cloth on the body of the dress
Metal tinklers on a contemporary jingle-dress
An illustration of the Bloodroot plant (Sanguinaria canadensis)
