John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 2nd Baron of Wharncliffe, was an aristocratic traveller and member of an important local family in Sheffield. He travelled in America in the early 1900 as part of a sort of Grand Tour and brought back with him an important group of North American Indian material. The provenance of these material is not good, but includes some interesting and important examples of clothing like the war shirt and scalping knife.

During his travels in US in 1824, a letter to his sister Caroline describes visiting a Mohawk village about 60 or 70 miles from Niagara and meeting Miss Brant, sister of Joseph Brant, a mixed race woman wearing a western style dress with leggings and moccasins.

His son was Edward Montagu Stuart Granville Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 3rd Baron Wharncliffe (1827-1899) who created the title Earl of Wharncliffe in 1876.