Real Western Wear
Beaded Gauntlets from the
William Healey Collection

Collectors are attracted to various works of art or other kinds of objects for a wide range of reasons. For many, beauty is the primary motivator, while for others a sense of the era during which the works were created or used is the strongest impetus. The collection that is the focus of this exhibition, showing at the Georgia Museum of Art through January 6, 2008, was formed by William Healey, whose love of works of art originating in the American West caused him to collect beaded gauntlets or gloves with large decorated cuffs. Such works created by Native American artists from the late nineteenth century on do not often receive in-depth study. The examination of beaded gauntlets and gloves undertaken in this exhibition and its catalog brings these rich garments to the attention of a much wider audience.

William Healey’s lavishly embellished gauntlets include examples from closely related areas of Native North America. The collection concentrates heavily on works from the Plateau region, arguably the area where more gauntlets were made than any other. The Great Basin and the northern and slightly eastern Plains also provide evidence of elaborately embroidered works that developed through contact with non-Native people, particularly the Army. In fact, the vast majority of these gauntlets were probably not made for Native wear, with the exception of those that became a standard part of the clothing adopted by rodeo contestants in the early years of the twentieth century. The form of the gloves and the materials with which they were decorated all were derived from European sources, but the desire to embellish the gauntlets richly, the creativity with which the artists who created them approached their work, and the close connection of clothing and identity are all strong aspects of Native culture throughout these areas and were well before contact with non-Native people. The fact that many of these items were made for outside sale and use does not diminish their visual impact, their quality or their importance as works of art.

As horses became more widely available by the late eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries, the people of the Plains, Great Basin and Plateau became well-known horsemen and, in some cases, kept large herds of horses. In addition to embellishing clothing, embroiderers also elaborately decorated horse gear, such as saddle blankets, stirrup covers, martingales, and cruppers. The appearance of a horse with spectacularly beaded gear ridden by a man, woman or child also wearing richly ornamented clothing, including gauntlets, is still a strong part of the cultures of these regions for special occasions.

Although intertribal trade existed well before Europeans entered the Plateau, Great Basin and Plains, European contact brought great numbers of objects as well as larger supplies of beads into Native North America. Hand-drilled beads of stone, bone and shell could be augmented by glass beads that came initially in only red, yellow, blue, and white but by the middle part of the nineteenth century were available in a wide variety of hues. The first trade beads were fairly large, perhaps as much as one-quarter or one-eighth inch in diameter. These larger beads, sometimes referred to as “pony beads,” were generally used sparingly, as their availability was limited. By the mid-nineteenth century, beads became much smaller. The beads employed on the Healey gauntlets are all of this latter, smaller size of beads, often termed “seed beads.” While most of the beads found on gauntlets are opaque, some are translucent and may be cut with flat faces or sides that sparkle far more than opaque beads in the light. These faceted beads were available by the turn of the nineteenth century in the eastern parts of North America and were gradually traded west. Translucent uncut beads and metal beads are also visible on the Healey gauntlets. Translucent beads were often used to cover larger areas, while metallic beads generally served as accents, such as at the center of floral motifs.

Some of the most lavishly embroidered works from the Plateau, Great Basin and Plains are women’s dresses and children's clothing. Other types of clothing, including fitted jackets and vests based on non-Native garments, became part of the apparel of many Native people in these areas by the later nineteenth century. Often, this clothing was prominently made for or worn at special occasions. It also served, and still does, as evidence of the maker’s creativity and a marker of identity. While vests and gauntlets are non-Native items of clothing, in the hands of Native beadworkers they became identifiers of status, cultural identity and love for one’s children. There were additional opportunities for public statements of cultural and personal identity through elaborately decorated clothing after the establishment of the reservation system, when Wild West shows allowed many Native people to travel across the United States and throughout Europe. Beadworkers not only created clothing and horse regalia for use in these shows but also sold many pieces to non-Natives.

Beaded gauntlets are the dominant works in the Healey collection, but it also includes examples of smaller, women’s gloves. Gauntlets suggest wear for special events, while decorated gloves could be worn on many other occasions. Creating gloves was one of the ways in which women in the Plateau area, for example, expressed their creativity and drew upon traditions during the 1930s and 1940s. Some artists still make them and other beaded items today as important components of their artistic and cultural heritage. Just as the elaborately embroidered gauntlets of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did, contemporary examples display the creativity of their makers and the close connection of clothing and identity throughout Native North America. Photographs courtesy of the Georgia Museum of Art; Photographs by Dennis O’Kain.

Real Western Wear: Beaded Gauntlets from the William Healey Collection travels to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, 1700 N.E. 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73111; www.nationalcowboymuseum.org, where it will show from February 8 to May 5, 2008. The exhibition next moves to the C.M. Russell Museum, 400 13th Street North, Great Falls, Montana, 59401; www.cmrussell.org, from October 10, 2008 to January 18, 2009.
Real Western Wear was organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, with Marilyn Laufer, director of the Jule Collins Smith Museum, serving as guest curator and Dennis Harper, the museum’s curator of exhibitions, as in-house curator.
The exhibition catalog, Real Western Wear: Beaded Gauntlets from the William P. Healey Collection, is available from the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia; www.uga.edu/gamuseum. It includes essays by Joyce M. Szabo and by Steven L. Grafe, curator of American Indian Art, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.