Lewis’ Tippet

Meriwether Lewis by Charles B.J.F. Saint-Mémin, 1807. From the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

This widely known painting of Meriwether Lewis features the Captain wearing dramatically different attire than the government-issued U.S. Army uniform he would have worn at the beginning of the Expedition.

The frontiersman-style elk skins he wore for this portrait are adorned with a tippet – an ermine-skin shoulder garment given to him by Shoshone chief Cameahwait in August 1805. In return for the tippet, Lewis presented the chief with his hat and one of his guns.

Lewis wrote in great detail (over 430 words) about the tippet on August 20, 1805, including: “The tippet of the Snake Indians is the most eligant peice of Indian dress I ever saw, the neck or collar of this is formed of a strip of dressed Otter skin with the fur. it is about four or five inches wide and is cut out of the back of the skin the nose and eyes forming one extremity and the tail the other. beginning a little behind the ear of the animal at one edge of this collar and proceeding towards the tail, they attatch from one to two hundred and fifty little roles of Ermin skin formed in the following manner…”

Lewis must have adored this gift from Cameahwait because he wore it in this portrait by Charles Saint-Mémin in 1807. It later was featured in Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia museum, but was lost or destroyed when the museum closed in the 1840s.

Alt Text: The full-body painting of Lewis, which is very small – 6 1/8” tall by 3 ¾” wide. He is standing, right hand on his hip, left hand holding a leaning gun. He is wearing animal-skin clothing, moccasins, and a fur hat. The tippet is draped over his shoulders, falling down in front of his body all the way to his knees.