ALFRED JACOB MILLER COLLECTION
Historically Accurate Buckskin Clothing and Accoutrements of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
Historically Accurate Buckskin Clothing and Accoutrements of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
A.J. Miller was an artist who attended the 1837 Rendezvous. He made extensive sketches and notes of the trappers’ clothing, equipment, and activities which he used to create a large number of accurately detailed paintings. Much of his body of work, including sketches and notes, has survived to the present day.
When historian Bernard DeVoto wrote his comprehensive history of the fur trade, Across the Wide Missouri, he made extensive use of Miller’s paintings as illustrations. On page 415 DeVoto said, “All told then, Miller contrived to set down a good deal of the mountain fur trade, whose era was so short that no other painter ever got round to it. As the first painter of the upper Rocky Mountains and the only painter of a vivid aspect of our history he is entitled to a permanent if somewhat modest fame.”
Sources I have found invaluable in my recreations of the fur trade era clothing are:
I am using Miller’s work to accurately recreate the buckskin clothing of the fur trade era. I am using commercially tanned buckskin hand sewn with simulated sinew or machine stitched for a lower cost. I do have access to a limited amount of brain-tanned buckskin and deer sinew if you want complete historical accuracy. Items listed are examples. Your item will be made to order and will be similar. My prices vary with the cost of material and amount of labor involved.
***CLICK HERE to message me about an item***
When historian Bernard DeVoto wrote his comprehensive history of the fur trade, Across the Wide Missouri, he made extensive use of Miller’s paintings as illustrations. On page 415 DeVoto said, “All told then, Miller contrived to set down a good deal of the mountain fur trade, whose era was so short that no other painter ever got round to it. As the first painter of the upper Rocky Mountains and the only painter of a vivid aspect of our history he is entitled to a permanent if somewhat modest fame.”
Sources I have found invaluable in my recreations of the fur trade era clothing are:
- The 1837 Sketchbook of the Western Fur Trade, by Rex Allen Norman. An examination of the artwork of Alfred J. Miller. Copyright 1996 by Scurlock Publishing Company, Inc. Texarkana, Texas.
- In the Image of A. J. Miller by Shawn Webster published by Historical Enterprises, Macon, GA 2005
- Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947.
I am using Miller’s work to accurately recreate the buckskin clothing of the fur trade era. I am using commercially tanned buckskin hand sewn with simulated sinew or machine stitched for a lower cost. I do have access to a limited amount of brain-tanned buckskin and deer sinew if you want complete historical accuracy. Items listed are examples. Your item will be made to order and will be similar. My prices vary with the cost of material and amount of labor involved.
***CLICK HERE to message me about an item***