Clothing encounters with Lewis and Clark

I learned about he information in this topic from various American history classes over my career but more specifically recently from my Anthropology of North American Indians class at Penn State.

 President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; essentially doubling the size of the Continental United States. He commissioned the Corps of Discovery Expedition (1804-1806) which was headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly acquired territory. Clothing and differing perceptions of beauty it turns out, even played a part in this famous American expedition and were recorded by those involved. The link below is to a wonderful interactive map of the Lewis and Clark expedition by PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/trailmap/





In the summer of 1805 after a year and a half of traveling Lewis and Clark encountered the Shoshone Indians in what is now western Montana. Upon this meeting a Shoshone Indian noted the clothing of the group which served as a key part of his description of them: they were "Clothed in skins unknown to us." Desperately needing horses the to cross the Rocky Mountains before the winter set in, Lewis and Clark with help from Sacagawea translating were able to trade various items for Shoshone horses. Lewis recorded in his journal that he was able to purchase three by trading an "old uniform coat, several handkerchiefs and three knives."
In September the party began to climb the rough Rocky Mountains. In an attempt to fight off the cold and a snow storm one man wrote that: "We mended up our moccasins and some of the men with out socks wrapped rags on their feet. and we loaded up our horses and set out without anything to eat." Here the misery of the men is magnified by the lack of something so simple as proper footwear.  

 

Sacagawea, translator and guide for Lewis and Clark

Below are clips of the PBS documentary by Ken Burns: Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-L164-tIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJLICRtU1Tg

In October the party reached the descended from the Rocky's and entered the verdant Columbia Basin. There they met still different groups of Native Americans and recorded them as wearing clothes made of Cedar bark. And that peoples living there flattened their children's heads as a sign of beauty.

Illustration from Lewis and Clarks' journals depicting the means of flattening a babies head and the appearance of the end result 

Day 7: Jackson Pollock

Black leggings, white cami, yellow high tops, men's 70s cut button down with paint splatter print, antique geometric black and yellow earrings

 

Jackson Pollock is an American Painter known for his contributions to Abstract Expressionism works. This genre started post WW2 in New York. A link below from the National Gallery of Art gives more details about his life and work. http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6: Purple in plural

Grape purple long sleeve tee, wool hounds-tooth skirt, striped coach sneakers, hand made necklace from my friend Katie, antique opal ring, and pearl earrings