North America as it used to be, envisioned up all the way back to 1859. Plates from Paul Kane’s “Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again.”

*PORTRAIT OF A HALF-BREED CREE GIRL. (sic). Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Frontispiece. Image 10 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n9/mode/1up

*Number three – Indian Pipe.* Page 14, Image 13 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/14/mode/1up

*Number 6. – Group of Buffaloes.* Page 143, Image 143 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/143/mode/1up

*FLAT-HEAD WOMAN AND CHILD. (sic). Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 235, Image 236 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n235/mode/1up

*PORTRAIT OF MAN-CE-MUCKT. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 296, Image 297 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n296/mode/1up

*PORTRAIT OF KEE-AKEE-KA-SAA-KA-WOD WITH PIPE-STEM. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 436, Image 437 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n436/mode/1up

*GROUP OF SIX INDIAN CHIEFS. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 460, Image 461 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n460/mode/1up

*MEDICINE PIPE-STEM DANCE. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 463, Image 464 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n463/mode/1up

*PORTRAIT OF AN ESQUIMAUX. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 475, Image 475 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n475/mode/1up

*WHITE MUD PORTAGE. Paul Kane, artist. Vincent Brooks, lithographer.* Page 485, Image 486 of Paul Kane’s 1858 work Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America: from Canada to Vancouver’s island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory and back again. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. Collections of the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofarti00kane_0/page/n485/mode/1up

Lithographs made from Kane’s drawings which were done from life.

Portraits of Native American chiefs. “The aboriginal portfolio : a collection of portraits of the most celebrated chiefs of the North American Indians.” Published in Philadelphia in 1835, it is the work of James Otto Lewis (1799-1858).

“Kee-O-Kuck or the Watching Fox: The present chief of the Sauk tribe and Successor to Black Hawk.” Page 1. Painted by J. O. Lewis at the great treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825. Lehman and Duval, Philadelphia, engravers. Gregory Javitch Native Peoples of the New World Collection, University of Alberta Libraries. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/bp_1389667/mode/1up

“Nabu-Naa-Kee-Schick or The One Side of the Sky. A Chippewa chief.” Page 2. Painted at the Treaty of Fond du Lac (on Lake Superior) by J. O. Lewis in 1826. Lehman and Duval, Philadelphia, engravers. Gregory Javitch Native Peoples of the New World Collection, University of Alberta Libraries. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/bp_1389667/page/n1/mode/1up

“Waa-Na-Taa or the Foremost in Battle: Chief of the Sioux Tribe.” Page 3. Painted by J. O. Lewis at the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825. Lehman and Duval, Philadelphia, engravers. Gregory Javitch Native Peoples of the New World Collection, University of Alberta Libraries. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/bp_1389667/page/n2/mode/1up

“The Little Crow: A celebrated Sioux Chief.” Page 12. Page 3. Painted by J. O. Lewis at the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1825. Lehman and Duval, Philadelphia, engravers. Gregory Javitch Native Peoples of the New World Collection, University of Alberta Libraries. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/bp_1389667/page/n12/mode/1up

James Otto Lewis started out as an engraver in Philadelphia around 1815. Fascinated by what he learned of the western territories, as a young man he went west in 1819. Traveling with the governor of the Michigan Territory Lewis worked for the United States government painting official portraits of Native Americans in the course of his employment which included attending numerous treaties and ceremonies so these are painted from life. Learn more about him here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Otto_Lewis. Quite a few so more for later posts, too.

A selection of portraits of Native Americans painted by Henry Inman. Living from 1801 to 1846, Inman was first vice president of the National Academy of Design. Studied under John Wesley Jarvis.

“*No-Tin (Wind)*.” 1832-1833. American. Oil on canvas. Collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the public domain in the United States because the artist died over 100 years ago. via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Inman_-*No-Tin*(Wind)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

“Pes-Ke-Le-Cha-Co.” 1832-1833. American. Oil on canvas. In the public domain due to age. via https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/813594

“Hoo-Wan-Ne-Ka (Little Elk).’ 1832. American. Oil on canvas. 1832. Whitney Western Art Museum. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/museum-minute-national-indian-gallery#stream/0

These are from a set of portraits painted by Inman in 1832 and 1833 in preparation for the production of hand-colored lithographs for Thomas L. McKenney’s “The History of the Indian Tribes of North America.” These leaders had originally been painted from life by Charles Bird King, when invited to Washington by the United States government and greeted by President James Monroe in 1822. King’s portraits were destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian Museum in 1865 but Inman’s have survived. (The above referenced information is taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art description of the portrait of “Pes-Ke-Le-Cha-Co.” above.

Portraits of Native Americans from before a lot of people decided to go out west and it was never the same again. From George Catlin’s work, “O-Kee-Pa; a Religious Ceremony; and other Customs of the Mandans,” an account of an annual religious ceremony practised by the Mandan tribe. Published in 1867.

“Two Mandan men and one woman.” Page 20. Simonau and Toovey, lithographers after a drawing by Catlin. Collections of the University of Pittsburgh Library System. Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/okeepareligiousc00catl/page/n19/mode/2up

“Bird’s eye view of part of the Mandan Village.” Plate II, page 25. *Simonau and Toovey, lithographers after a drawing by Catlin. Collections of the University of Pittsburgh Library System.* Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/okeepareligiousc00catl/page/n25/mode/2up

“Lodge Interior.” Plate 3, page 39. *Simonau and Toovey, lithographers after a drawing by Catlin. Collections of the University of Pittsburgh Library System.* Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation, digitalizing sponsor. In the public domain due to age. via https://archive.org/details/okeepareligiousc00catl/page/n39/mode/2up

Note: there are 13 of these plates, these are merely the first three with more posts with the others yet to come. These were published towards the end of Catlin’s life, but the images and the text refer back to a visit in July of 1832 when Catlin was joined by, among others, a J. Kipp who was agent for the Missouri Fur Company.