War Shirt

1830–40

Upper Missouri River Tribe
Missouri, United States

Equipped with powerful symbols and emblems, war shirts expressed the wearer’s authority and status, and also served as his protective spiritual armor in battle.

Status: On View, Gallery 136
Department: Arts of the Americas

Culture: Missouri
Title: War Shirt
Place: Missouri (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1830–1840
Medium: Deer hide, ermine tails, glass pony beads, hair, porcupine quills, and trade cloth
Dimensions: Approx: 101.6 × 50.8 cm (40 × 20 in.)
Credit Line: Frederick W. Renshaw, Ada Turnbull Hertle, and Curator's Discretionary funds; purchased with funds provided by the Donnelley Foundation, Cynthia and Terry E. Perucca, and Mrs. Leonard S. Florsheim, Jr.; African and Amerindian Art Small Gifts Fund; Arnold Crane Endowment; African and Amerindian Art Purchase Fund; David Soltker and Irving Dobkin endowments
Reference Number: 2004.485
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/183083/manifest.json

David Masello, “100 Top Treasures: War-Worn,” Arts & Antiquities (Nov. 2005): 84–85, no. 32 (ill).
Richard Townsend with Elizabeth Pope, Indian Art of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), 119, cat. 93 (ill.).

Private institution, sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Sale 7002, lot 77, June 4, 1997. Cultural Assets II Santa Fe, NM, by 2004 [Incoming permanent receipt RX24583, Sept. 14, 2004, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Art Institute of Chicago, 2004.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.