McKenney & Hall

Antique Native American Prints / McKenney & Hall

History of the Indian Tribes of North America
Artist: McKenney & Hall
Date: Philadelphia: 1848 – 1850; 120 hand colored lithographs
Print Type: Hand Colored Lithograph (original coloring)
Octavo Print Size: 7.5” x 11”
Thomas McKenney was the head of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs during the early part of the 19th century. McKenney took office in 1816 and shortly thereafter began to plan an archive of Native American culture. During the winter of 1821–1822 a large delegation of Native Americans comprising Pawnee, Sauk, Fox, Menominee, Miami, Sioux, Seminole and Chippewa traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet President James Monroe. McKenney recorded their likenesses by commissioning Lewis and King to paint their portraits. More paintings were added over the years resulting in an impressive gallery of Native American portraiture. McKenney’s goals in commissioning the Indian Tribes of North America were to educate the American public about these greatly exotic warriors and chiefs and to preserve them for posterity in a series of beautiful portraits. Most of the original oil portraits were painted from life in the studio of Charles Bird King, to whom McKenney brought many of the subjects. The rest were copied from watercolors executed in the field by a young frontier artist named James Otto Lewis. Once finished the portraits were housed in the Smithsonian, where they remained until destroyed in a fire in 1865. As a result the folio and octavo editions are vital in their “faithful recording of the features and dress of celebrated American Indians who lived and died long before the age of photography. First published in folio in 1836-1844 and in octavo in 1848-1850. James Hall based on information supplied by McKenney wrote the text. Although McKenney was very aware that he was preserving a chapter in history he could not have known that had he not undertaken to publish these prints that no record would remain after the 1865 fire at the Smithsonian.
These original antique prints are from an early Octavo edition and in very good condition.

Many of these prints are sold, however we offer Fine Art Reproductions of many of our antique prints.
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