I had taken a picture of this outfit on just about every visit
to the Gene Autry Museum, but I never recorded the information
about it while I was there. I always wanted to post my pictures,
but
as the outfit looks a bit "unusual" I wanted to be able to pass along
what The Autry wrote about it. The museum placard reads:
Western Women
Like their male counterparts, women played important
parts in
Wild West shows and rodeos. Women rode broncs and
bulls,
wrestled steers and roped calves just like the men
and suffered the
same bumps, bruises and broken bones. This outfit was
worn by a
Wild West show or rodeo performer in the late 1890s
to early
1900s and reflects the influences of Native American
design.
The jacket, skirt leggings and belt are all leather;
the swastika
design is a widely used symbol taken from Native
American
tradition. Hand tooled leather cowboy hats, such as
this one
from about 1910, were flashy and worn strictly for
show.
That is one hat that I am not real fond of. I can't say that
about too many hats that are on display in The Autry.
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