The North American Collections
The Museum contains more than five hundred examples of clothing and textiles from North America, with a geographical spread from the Arctic to Mexico. From the Canadian Arctic, fur and skin clothing and associated tools from the Canadian Inuit were collected by fur trader Captain Joseph Bernard and by anthropologist Diamond Jenness in the early twentieth century. Significant early collections of North American Plains beaded hide clothing include those made by Mary Owen for the Folklore Society in the late nineteenth century, and by Robert Rymill in the 1930s. Recently a number of field-based collections have been acquired by students and staff with financial assistance from the Crowther-Beynon Fund. Canadian Plains material acquired during the 1990s includes clothing made by Native artists and commissioned by Alison Brown, and a pow-wow dance costume commissioned by Tim Raybould. Collections from the Northwest Coast of Canada, which include two early twentieth century Haida Chilkat blankets, have been augmented by a Haida button blanket made by Theresa Mitchell and collected in 1989 by Gillian Crowther. Susanna Rostas acquired Mexican embroidered clothing from the Chiapas region and a concheros dance costume from Mexico City for the Museum in the early 1990s.
