View other artifacts: Octopus Bag Indian Doll

Learn about three Native American artifacts
in need of conservation in our Adopt-an-Artifact program

Three artifacts in the Kansas City Museum’s Dyer Collection of Native American artifacts have been selected by Museum staff as candidates for conservation, supported by the Friends organization. This cradle hood is a significant piece in the collection and needs substantial work to preserve its integrity.

We appreciate your interest in this valuable work, and invite you to make a tax-deductible gift to support the conservation of this piece in the Dyer Collection of the Kansas City Museum.



Unique among the Dyer Collection is this cradle hood; it is the only one which is beaded leather on all sides, as well as the only one with corded trim (usually reserved for European-style items) and silk lining. A cradle hood primarily served to shield an infant from the sun. This particular item is documented to have been collected by the Dyers in Ida Dyer’s book Fort Reno.

Physical description:
The cradle hood is a rectangular shaped cradle with hood that juts out from back and forms a rounded hood opening. The entire hood is completely covered in beading with long strands of green and white horizontal bands, and a center panel has design of pink and dark blue beads bisected by two red bands. A flat piece of hard buckskin lies on the back and forms a beaded square at foot; decorated on its edge with a green cord. The interior is lined with red silk. From the Cheyenne tribe.


Condition:
The cradle hood is unstable due to the aging of its various materials; the silk lining is almost completely shattered and now shows only remnants. The buckskin is splitting from the extreme weight of the beads — the object’s construction is what is making it unstable.

Recommended treatment:
     Structural support
     Stabilization of materials
     Replace any lost beads and consolidate any loose beads
     Cleaning


About the Dyer Collection
Daniel Dyer and his wife Ida moved to what was then Indian Territory (modern day Oklahoma) in 1870. Dyer was first a clerk and then the Indian Agent at the Quapaw Agency, before moving to the Darlington Agency near Ft. Reno in 1884, while Ida served as a schoolteacher. Mrs. Dyer began collecting items from members of several tribes who had been moved off their lands to the fort; in some instances she purchased items she liked, other times she simply took what she liked, thinking of herself as a sort of anthropologist more than simply a collector of curios. The collection was fought over in court on more than one occasion but finally found a home at the Kansas City Museum in 1940.
Read more >>