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Illustrations of the Manners, Customs & Condition of the
North American Indians. With Letters and Notes, Written during
Eight Years of Travel and Adventure among the Wildest and
Most Remarkable Tribes Now Existing. By George Catlin.


Published by Henry G. Bohn, London
(1845)


Original Engravings over 170 years old!


Sheet size: approximately 6 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches


[also available are the 1876 color lithographs]

George Catlin's paintings comprise the first important pictorial record of the Plains Indians and their then little-known homelands west of the Mississippi River. "Catlin's Indian Gallery," as the dedicated artist himself called it, consisted of hundreds of portraits of Indians, scenes of Indian life, and landscapes of a wilderness scarcely changed through the millennia. In his notebooks and on canvas, the young Pennsylvania lawyer captured much of an American that was swept away a century ago by the westward-pressing settler.

Catlin made these dramatic paintings on a series of journeys into largely unmapped Indian country between 1830 and 1836. For the first time, Americans in the eastern states saw the Pawnees, the tall Blackfeet and Crows, the Sioux, and the wild Comanches. They saw wide prairies teeming with buffalo, the turbulent Missouri River, and the giant grizzly bear. They saw villages of hundreds of graceful teepees and peered into the dim interiors of comfortable earth lodges, and witnessed the four-day torture ceremony of the Mandans.

The Plains Indians of Catlin's portraits were still proud and dignified, unlike their cousins on eastern reservations. Freed by the acquisition of the horse from the restrictions of hunger and scarcity, they were riding the crest of a new richness and power.

But they, too, were fated to lose in the encounter with western civilization—and Catlin knew it. "Art may mourn when these people are swept from the earth," he wrote, "and the artists of the future ages may look in vain for another race so picturesque in their costumes, their weapons, their colours, their manly games, and their chase...."

[ref.: "Letters and Notes..." introduction by Marjorie Halpin (Dover, 1973).]

catlin

George Catlin
as painted by William Fisk, 1849

"I sat out alone, unaided and unadvised, resolved, (if my life should be spared), by the aid of my brush and my pen, to rescue from oblivion so much of their primitive looks and customs as the industry and ardent enthusiasm of one lifetime could accomplish."

GEORGE CATLIN, ca. 1842

 

PLEASE CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW
(Due to the age and type of paper used, some foxing may be present.)

The author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Frontispiece

The author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains

Indian localities in 1833
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Frontispiece

Outline map of Indian Localities in 1833.

$250
[with folds as issued]

Fort Union, view of the Missouri River
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 3-4

Fort Union, 1832

View of the Missouri River, filled with snags and rafts formed by trees which have been undermined by the falling alluvial banks

$75

Prairie bluffs above the Poncas
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 5-6

Beautiful prairie bluffs above the Poncas

Prairie bluffs

$75

Buffalo Bull and Cow
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 7-8

Buffalo bull

Buffalo Cow

$75

Batiste and Catlin buffalo
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 9-10

Batiste [sic] and Catlin running buffalo

Wounded buffalo

$75

Buffalo's Back Fat, head chief
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 11

Stu-mick-o-sucks, Buffalo's Back Fat, head chief

$75

Grandson and wife of Buffalo's Back Fat
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 12-13

Grandson of Buffalo's Back Fat

Eeh-nis-kin, Crystal Stone, wife of Buffalo's Back Fat

$75

Pe-toh-pee-kiss, Eagle's Ribs
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 14

Pe-toh-pee-kiss, Eagle's Ribs

$75

ALSO AVAILABLE FRAMED, FROM THE 1876 COLOR LITHOGRAPH EDITION

Iron Horn, Woman Who Strikes Many
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 16-17

In-ne-o-cose, Iron Horn

Ah-kay-ee-pix-en, Woman Who Strikes Many

$75

Wardrobe appendages of an Indian
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 18

Wardrobe appendages of an Indian

$75

Medicine man in curing costume
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 19

Medicine man in curing costume

$75

Crow lodge
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 20

Crow lodge

$75

Sioux moving camp, Sioux encamped
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 21-22

Sioux moving camp

Sioux encamped

$75

Four Wolves, Red Bear, Two Crows, Woman who lives in a Bear's Den
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 24-27

Chah-ee-chopes, Four Wolves

Oo-je-en-a-he-ha, Woman Who Lives in a Bear's Den

Dunk-pits-a-hoe-shee, Red Bear

Paris-ka-roo-pa, Two Crows, the Younger

$75

Pigeon's Egg Head, Fire bug that creeps, he who has eyes behind him, wife of
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 28-31

Wi-jun-jon, Pigeon's Egg Head

Chin-cha-pee, Fire Bug that Creeps, wife of Pigeon's Egg Head

Bro-cas-sie, He Who Has Eyes Behind Him (also known as Broken Arm)

Tow-ee-ka-wet, wife of He Who Has Eyes Behind Him

$75

Pipe Dance
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 32

Pipe Dance

$75

Greater Wonder, Assiniboine woman and child
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 33-34

Greater Wonder, a Cree woman carrying her baby in her robe

Assiniboin woman and her child

$75

The Six and wife
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 35-36

Sha-co-pay, The Six, chief of the Ojibbeways

Wife of Sha-co-pay

$75
[foxing]

Brick Kilns of St. Louis
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 37-38

The "Brick Kilns," Clay Bluffs above St. Louis

The "Brick Kilns," a Far View

$75

Big Bend, shooting Antelope
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 39-40

Big Bend on the Upper Missouri
above St. Louis

Shooting Antelope

$75

The Grand Dome, prairie dogs
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 41-42

"The Grand Dome"

Community of prairie dogs

$75


(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 43-44

Solitary clay bluff

"The Three Domes," a group of clay bluffs above the Mandans

$75

Mandan village scenes
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 45-46

Distant view of Mandan village

Interior of a Mandan lodge

$75

Mandan Village, Mandan Cemetery
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 47-48

Bird's eye view of Mandan village

Back view of Mandan village, showing cemetery

$75

Wolf Chief
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 49

Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, Wolf Chief, head chief of the tribe

He who rushes through middle, mouse colored feather, mint, mink
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 50-53

Mah-tahp-ta-ha, He Who Rushes through the Middle

Seehk-hee-da, Mouse Colored Feather

Sha-ko-ka, Mint

Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca, Mink

$75

Deceiving Wolf and his family
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 54

San-ja-ko-kah, Deceiving Wolf, and his family

$75

Old Bear medicine man
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 55

Mah-to-he-hah, Old Bear, a medicine man

$75

Mandan Buffalo Dance
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 56

Mandan Buffalo Dance

$75
[foxed]

Mandan boys in sham fight
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 57

Mandan boys in sham fight

$75
[foxed]

Rainmaker, tchung-kee game
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 58-59

Rainmaker

Tchung-kee game

$75
[some foxing]

Rainmaker, tchung-kee game
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 58-59

Rainmaker

Tchung-kee game

$75
[some foxing]

Mandan archery contest
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 60

Mandan archery contest, "The Game of the Arrow"

$75
[some foxing]

Mandan horse racing
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 61

Mandan horse racing on a race course in back of the village

$75

Catlin at a feast with Four Bears
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 62

Catlin at a feast with Four Bears

$75

Mandan war party in council
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 63

Mandan war party in council

$75

Mah-to-toh-pa, Four Bears
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 63

Mah-to-toh-pa, Four Bears

$75

robe
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 65a

robe of Mah-to-toh-pa

$75

robe detail
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 65b (Figures 1-4)

robe of Mah-to-toh-pa

$75

robe details
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 65c (Figures 5-7)

robe of Mah-to-toh-pa

$75

robe details
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 65d (Figures 8-11)

robe of Mah-to-toh-pa

$75

Interior of a Mandan medicine lodge
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 66

Interior of a Mandan medicine lodge

$75

Bel-lohck-mah-pick, the Bull Dance
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 67

Bel-lohck-mah-pick, the Bull Dance

$75

Pohk-hong, the Cutting Scene
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 68

Pohk-hong, the Cutting Scene

$75

The last race
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 69

Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick, the Last Race

$75
[some foxing]

Hidatsa village and vapour baths
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plates 70-71

Hidatsa village showing earth-covered lodges on Knife River, above St. Louis

Vapour baths of the Hidatsa

$75
[some foxing]

Black Moccasin
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 72

Eeh-to-k-pah-shee-pee-shah, Black Moccasin, an aged chief

$75
[some foxing]

red thunder and wife
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 73-74

Ee-a-chin-che-a, Red Thunder, son of Black Moccasin

Seet-se-be-a, Midday Sun

$75

Green corn dance
(click thumbnail to enlarge)

Plate 75

Green Corn Dance of the Hidatsa

$75

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