Minneapolis Institute of Art

Cape

Seneca Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) artist

Date

c. 1800–1850

Medium

Cotton, silk, beads

Culture

Seneca Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The introduction of European beads, ribbons, and cloth through trade gave Eastern Woodlands people new possibilities for ornamentation. Women skilled in needlework responded by producing increasingly elaborate clothing and accessories like this beaded coat collar. The collar's double-curve motif, undulating lines, and rhythmic linear pattern all derive from earlier Woodlands quillwork designs. However, its intricate pattern, worked in tiny glass beads and silk ribbons, would have been impossible to achieve with porcupine quills. This collar was probably made to be a gift. In 1803, a Seneca family presented it to a Euro-American lawyer from western New York in gratitude for legal assistance that very likely involved land issues. Seneca Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), United States, Americas

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