For centuries, American Indian artists have embroidered porcupine quills, bird quills and moose hair onto a variety of objects and surfaces. After the arrival of glass beads and silk thread, Native artists soon integrated these new materials into existing traditions. Despite being foreign goods, these imported items soon became identifiers of American Indian identity and aesthetics to both Native and non-Native people. Euroamerican leather gloves were among the objects adorned with Native beadwork and worn in both Indian and non-Indian communities. Indian women found that settlers desired all of the buckskin work gloves that they could produce. By the late 19th century, beaded gauntlets gloves had become necessary components of the western cowboys' fancy dress wardrobe and favorite items of eastern "dudes" who kept them as souvenirs of their western adventures. The numerous rodeo and western pageants founded after 1910 further fueled demand for the gauntlets

Real Western Wear presents 73 pairs of decorated gloves from the collection of William P. Healey, and reflects the design diversity and technical virtuosity of Plains, Plateau and Great Basin Indian artists who produced these singular objects from the 1890s through the 1940s