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The Native American artifacts in the Kansas City Museum’s Dyer Collection are considered among the finest collections of its kind in the United States. According to curatorial specialist Lisa Shockley, they are most worthy of support for several reasons.

“The significance of these artifacts is in the skill with which they were created, their age and their importance to the overall Native American collection here as examples of specific items from a particular time and place,” Ms. Shockley explains. “As a history museum, time and place are extremely important to us.”

Conservation of these artifacts is expected to cost several thousand dollars each. This work falls outside the Museum's operating budget and is supported entirely by private contributions. Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to conserve these items today.

Everyday items tell us extraordinary things

The Dyer Collection, though remarkable in scope, is a collection of everyday items that were constructed with great care.

“The Plains cultures were nomadic for a large part of their history,” explains Ms. Shockley, “and they needed to be able to carry possessions with them.” Great care and detail went into creating beauty in everyday items, like the doll, cradle hood and octopus bag featured in the collection. It’s likely that these pieces traveled throughout the heartland with families.

A bitter custody battle brought the artifacts our way

The Dyer collection itself has a very long and colorful history. Daniel & Ida Dyer spent 15 years living at Indian agencies in Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) from approximately 1870-1885. During that time period, the couple (mainly Ida) began collecting what they called “Indian Curiosities.”

After moving to Kansas City, the Dyers continued to collect this material, as well as ethnographic material from around the world. Friends and strangers alike would send more items to them as fame of the Dyer Collection grew. In the late 1890s, the collection was placed on loan to the Kansas City, Missouri school board, on which both Daniel Dyer and his brother-in-law served.

Following a bitter divorce and the death of their children, the Dyers continued to fight over the collection, while it remained in the possession of the school board and eventually became the seed of the Dyer Museum. Ida Dyer was ultimately awarded ownership of the collection and she immediately sold it to the school board for a token amount. In 1939, the Dyer Museum was one of the museums that merged to form the Kansas City Museum Association. The collection has remained with the Kansas City Museum through its merger with what is now Union Station Kansas City.