Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians / by Geo. Catlin ; written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39 : in two volumes, with four hundred illustrations, carefully engraved from his original paintings.

  • Catlin, George, 1796-1872.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians / by Geo. Catlin ; written during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39 : in two volumes, with four hundred illustrations, carefully engraved from his original paintings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    parents who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon after the close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the Indian massacre. The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat m vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in tbe other. At the urgent request of my father, who was a practising lawyer, I was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already a corner in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a profession, under the direction of Keeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended the lectures of these learned judges for two years—was admitted to the bar—and practised the law, as a sort of Nimrodical lawyer, in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint pots ; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher or adviser. I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the art for several years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole lifetime of enthusiasm ; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and dignified- looking Indians, from the wilds of the Far West, suddenly arrived in the city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic beauty,—with shield and helmet,—with tunic and manteau,—tinted and tasselled off, exactly for the painter's palette ! In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze and admira- tion of all who beheld them. After this they took their leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and conclusions. Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the painter,—and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best study or school of the arts in the world : such I am sure, from the models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy the life- time of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of becoming their historian. There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush; and at the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection the objects of my heart above-named; which had long been laid by to