Browse: Highlights from the Gilcrease Collection

These selected items are offered with enlargements for close viewing.

154 Items

Mourning Her Brave

The Wild Turkey

For John Ridge

Woman in Window

Caddo and Kiowa (Cáuigù)¹ artist T. C. Cannon often drew upon the techniques of the Post-Impressionist and Fauvist movements in his vibrant works. For his woodblock print Woman in Window, which also references complex conceptions of the representation of Indigenous women, Cannon collaborated with two Japanese masters whose signatures are in the lower right, woodblock carver Kentaro Maeda and printer Matashiro Uchikawa. The woman’s red-dyed Northern Plains–style wool dress is adorned with stars on the sleeves, indicating her participation in the Ghost Dance. The front of the dress features yellow cowrie shells and the collar is decorated with gold bugle beads, with a cross from a rosary stitched near the collarbone; she wears five-tier earrings. The cream-colored stripes at the shoulders and cuffs are an homage to the U.S. Army wool remnants supplied to Indigenous communities through trade and government rationing. An ornate pattern of red paint appears to drip down her face from the part in her hair.

Soft Green of August

Nugent's Homestead

James Madison peace medal, 2nd size

A James Madison silver medal. On the front, there is a bust of the president and the words, “James Madison President of the U.S. A.D. 1809.” The back features two clasped hands, two crossed pipes, and the words, “Peace and Friendship.”

James Madison

White Swan muslin cutting

This watercolor, ink, and graphite work on muslin was painted by White Swan, a Crow war hero; however, it appears to have been cut from a larger coup-count painting, as White Swan himself is not depicted. Indigenous peoples in the Northern Plains practiced storytelling through figurative painting for centuries. Crow wartime records such as coup counts and battle narratives were painted by the warriors who had participated in combat. The battle narrative here features late nineteenth-century Apsáalooke warriors on horseback as they encounter a number of opponents, including warriors from other tribes and the U.S. Cavalry. The figures are arranged in combat scenes, with each encounter depicting both the tribulations and the victories of a particular moment during war. While there is no ground or background, White Swan has arranged the battle spatially in a series of sequences that situate individual Apsáalooke warriors in time. On the left, four painted tipis representing family homes line the edge of the battleground.

Rainy Day

Petition to John J. Floyd from Thomas Jones

This is a petition to John J. Floyd (Judge, Georgia Supreme Court) from Thomas Jones on behalf of Sarah Harris and writ of Habeas corpus.

George Washington peace medal with "Spinning" scene

The image includes a woman spinning yarn with a loom for weaving behind her. To the side, a child rocks a baby in the cradle.

The Village at San Jose

Lakota Sioux beaded girl's dress with umbilical cord lizard-shaped bag

Lakota girl’s dress with beaded yoke. Lizard effigy amulet (umbilical charm), made of dyed porcupine quill, attached at front. A horizontal row of mescal seeds at dress center.

Portrait of Mrs. John Apthorp, nee Hannah Greenleaf

Woman's wearing blanket with ribbon work and four ribbon hands

A fine Osage wearing blanket decorated with ribbon work strips, nickel silver brooches, and applique hand design outlined in beads. 9 short bands of vertical ribbon work are side-by-side along the bottom. At the corners (additional) 1 1/2-inch width strips extend up further bounding both sides. The inside of the bottom row and the two sides are outlined with white cut and fold saw tooth ribbon applique. Inside the bounded field created by the ribbon work borders are four hand-shaped cut outs evenly spaced in a horizontal row. These are purple in color and are outlined in double row of white beads. A nickel silver brooch is attached to the blue wool blanket on each side of the hands (top center, left center, right center, and bottom center). The "middle" hands share brooches with their neighbors. The total is four hands surrounded originally by 13 brooches. Of this number the bottom concho under the left (facing) hand is lost, leaving 12 present. The ribbon work is executed in the following colors: light blue, white, yellow, pink, green, and purple. On the top of the wool blanket, a "rainbow" selvage pattern is present.

Parfleche envelope with geometric designs on the front

Parfleche envelope of leather with painted geometric designs on the front. The geometric designs consist of a central rectangle of a dark green outline with an inner line of yellow and a center square of dark green edged in red. These rectangles have four red triangles that stick out of one side. This rectangular design repeats four times across the envelope. The bottom and top edge of the envelope are decorated with a gently curved design of red, yellow, and then dark green on the top of the curve. The entirety of the design is bordered in two dark green lines with the natural color of the leather showing in between. The two sides of the envelope close with a leather thong that is through the middle of the three evenly spaced holes.

Charles Wilkes

Cloth doll with wooden head and carved facial features

Cloth doll with wooden head and carved facial features. Thread sewn seal gut parka and pants. Fishskin boots with red stroud cloth tops.

Gilcrease Museum is temporarily closed for construction.

Gilcrease Museum

The World’s Largest Collection of Art and Artifacts of the American West