Cap, worn by the women of the Plains of Columbia

Object Status:

Unlocated

Primary Source Reference:

Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 43

Additional Source Text:

This artifact appears on a long list of "Articles collected by Meriwether Lewis Esqr. and William Clark Esq. in their voyage and Journey of Discovery, up the Missouri to its source and to the Pacific Ocean, presented at different periods, through the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson."

Notes:

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) undertook their western Expedition in 1804-1806.

"Lewis and Clark almost certainly also collected a hat, which sadly does not survive, from the Wasco or Wishram people, Chinookan speakers who live well upstream. On 1 November 1805, while still in the area of the falls of the Columbia, Clark wrote that local people in the area 'Sold me a hat of their own taste and baskets in which they hold their water.' . . . This was probably a Wasco/Wishram hat of the sort documented since the late eighteenth century and still made and worn today. A member of the Vancouver expedition collected a similar hat in 1792, which is in the collection of the British Museum." Mary Malloy, "Chinookan Woven Hats," at https://lewis-clark.org/native-nations/chinookan-peoples/chinookan-wove…