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The Philadelphia Print Shop has one of the most extensive selections on antique prints of Native Americans available anywhere. From life-portraits of individual chiefs, warriors and women to first-hand depictions of typical events in the lives of the American Indians, these rare images are both dramatically decorative and historically fascinating.
A rare series of lovely and fascinating images of American Indians from a French history of the world by Jules Dufay. This plate came from the American volume of Dufay's Historie des Voyages, which was an account of the 'wars, social mores, products and history of different parts of the world. Each image is based to some extent on reality, but with some interesting aspects clearly not accurate. These are an early European attempt to better understand Native Americans.
From 1824 until 1845, Swiss doctor and natural historian Heinrich Rudolf Schinz published various editions of his "Natural History." Included in this work was a consideration of the human species, which Schinz grouped into five "tribes" or races. Schinz's work included illustrations of the different races and he took his images for American Indians upon the work of various naturalists, such as John Webber (from Cook's expedition) and Karl Bodmer (from his travels with Prince Maximilian. For the northeastern woodland Indians, Schinz copied the figure that appears in the foreground of Benjamin West's "The Death of General Wolfe." This figure had become the archetypical image for the American Indian in the early 19th century and this is one of the best examples of its use. A beautiful and detailed lithograph of this classic image. $450
Brandin. "Indien Mandan (Etats-Unis" Paris: Garnier Prères, 1877. Ca. 7 1/2 x 5. Chromolithograph by Dufrénoy. Very good condition.
A very attractive and detailed image of a Mandan warrior drawn by "Brandin." The style of image is very similar to the work of Karl Bodmer, but there is no images we have seen in Bodmer's work that corresponds to this print, so we are unsure of the source of the portrait. Whatever its origin, it is a very handsome portrait that appears to present authentic detail. Rare, attractive and unusual. $275
John Mix Stanley. [The Trial Of Red Jacket.] Signed in image, "J. M. Stanley 1869." Berlin: Storch & Kramer, 1871. Chromolithograph. 23 x 35 (sight). Print was laid on a board which is stable. Some old rubs repaired and inpainted. In old frame. Overall, fine condition. Very scarce. Ref: Peter Marzio, The Democratic Art, pp. 181f., plate 104.
A superior chromolithograph and a very scarce print after John Mix Stanley's famous painting "The Trial of Red Jacket." Red Jacket (ca. 1750-20 Jan. 1830) was a Seneca chief who became a leader of his nation during the American Revolution. Allied to the British, the Seneca found themselves on the losing side at the end of hostilities. From a weakened position, Red Jacket emerged as a negotiator and speaker rather than a warrior, to the consternation of many among the tribe. In 1792 he led a delegation of 50 Indians to Philadelphia where he met George Washington and received a large peace medal showing him shaking hands with the first president. As in this scene, Red Jacket is always portrayed wearing this medal. Nevertheless, in 1801 after defending Seneca tribal ways, which included rejection of Christianity, he was brought to trial for witchcraft by fellow tribesmen. His oratory provide a successful defense, and he emerged from the trial as a leader who preserved Seneca lands that included a reservation in the area of present-day Buffalo, New York. He and his tribe fought on the American side during the War of 1812, and that participation enabled the Seneca to retain their land for years after the death of this noble leader.
Stanley was interested in marketing his western images to a wider public than could afford his paintings, and so decided to use the relatively new and elaborate process of chromolithography. This process, with its many layers of color, most closely duplicated the appearance of original oil paintings, and Stanley hoped the resulting prints would help make his fortune. In 1869, Stanley arranged for a German publisher to issue chromolithographs of some of his paintings. The resulting prints proved to be quite popular, but the advent of the Franco-Prussian War soon made the business arrangement difficult to continue and few prints were ever produced. This rare example of one of Stanley's prints is a fine illustration both of the quality of his work and of the art of chromolithography in the late nineteenth century. $6,800
F.O.C. Darley. "Wyoming." New York: W.H. Holbrooke, 1852. Engraving by J.C. McRae. 18 1/4 x 25 1/2. Hand color. Very good condition.
A dramatic, large engraving based on F.O.C. Darley's drawing of the Wyoming Valley massacre. Darley is perhaps best known as America's first great illustrator, producing numerous images for books and magazines in the nineteenth century. He also, though, produced many historical images which were made into separate folio prints. Indeed, such was Darley's influence through his illustrations and prints that he must be seen as seminal in the forging of the American national identity. This print shows the fight on July 3, 1777 between Patriot militia and Loyalist troops supported by Indian allies in the Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania. After a brief but fierce battle, the militia troops fled, only to be pursed, especially by the Indians, who killed and tortured those they could catch. This "massacre" became a rallying point for Patriots leading to retaliation in the Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois in 1779. This print was supposed to be "First of a Series of national Engravings" to be issued by W.H. Holbrooke, or both New York and London, but none others seem to have been issued. $1,200
"Murder of Miss McCrea." Philadelphia, probably 1840s. Lithograph by Thomas Sinclair. 10 5/8 x 15 3/4. Conserved with expertly repaired tear into right margin and indications of former folds from having been inserted into a octavo book or magazine.
Jane McCrea was a lovely young American girl from a Tory family who lived in the Hudson Valley of New York during the American Revolution. Her fiancée was a British Army officer in Gen. Burgoyne's campaign from Canada in 1777. She was murdered by Indian allies of the British under circumstances that were then and now unclear, but the American patriots used the death to accuse the British of using Indians to kill other white men, and many Tories lost faith in the British because the ability of loyalist armies to protect civilians became doubtful. By the time of this publication the print could have been used to illustrate a captivity narrative, a popular literary genre, or to enflame general anti-Indian sentiments. The horror of her killing is enhanced by scenes in the dark forest background: to left a white man is killed by two Indians and to the right side a viper threatens a squirrel in a tree. Fascinating American gothic. $450
George Catlin. "Buffalo Hunt, Chase." Plate 7. From Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. London: G. Catlin, 1844. Folio; 12 1/4 x 18 1/2. Lithograph drawn by McGahey and printed by Day & Hague. Full original hand color. Very good condition.
The prints of George Catlin mark a poignant and heroic moment in the history of American art and culture. Setting out to chronicle and immortalize Indian culture, Catlin's career was one of mid-19th century pioneer adventure and spirit colored by the ideal of the 'noble savage' in his pristine environment. In 1830 he went out to St. Louis and from there traveled extensively for several years to Indian villages along the Platte and Missouri rivers and then later to tribes throughout the mid and far west. The result was some 500 paintings and one of the most significant chronicles of Indian life and culture ever produced. The prints Catlin later published from his paintings, with their fascinating and important subjects, as well as their rich color, detail and artistic worth, are a noble legacy from Catlin's memorable career. During his sojourn in the west, Catlin spent much time recording the customs of the Native Americans, including their hunting techniques. This image shows the action of a buffalo hunt in graphic detail. One Indian, whose horse seems to have been knocked over by a dying buffalo, stands and shoots his arrow at another beast, while nearby a mounted hunter sends an arrow true into the side of a massive bull. A third figure in the foreground shows a brave stepping from his galloping mount, about to be gored by a buffalo, onto the back of another thundering beast. The action, detail of costume and weapons, makes this print a terrific combination of ethnological artifact and aesthetic masterpiece. $5,750
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Karl Bodmer. "Abdih- Hiddisch. A Minatarre Chief." Tab. 24. From Travels In the Interior of North America in the Years 1832 to 1834. London: Ackermann and Company, 1839-1843. 10 x 12 1/2. Aquatint. Full hand color. Very good condition.
Karl Bodmer, (1809-1893), is considered by many to be the greatest 19th-century artist to have produced prints of the American west. Bodmer and his patron, Prince Maximilian of Wied, came to America from Germany in 1832. With Bodmer in charge of the pictorial documentary, Prince Maximilian, an experienced and respected traveler and naturalist, set out to put together as complete a study as possible of the western territories of the United States. The result was the publication of Maximilian's journals in successive German, French, and English editions between 1839 and 1843, and with it, a picture atlas of eighty-one aquatint plates after paintings by Bodmer. This picture volume is now regarded as one of the most comprehensive and memorable visual surveys of the western territories ever made. The prints provide a rare and privileged glimpse into 19th-century America by one of the now most coveted artists of the period. This is one of Bodmer's series of portrait prints and it demonstrates the quality of all his work. $9,500
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Karl Bodmer. No. 35. "Indianer Geschmückt Mit Den Zeichen Seiner Kriegsthaten. Indien décoré des emblèmes de ses faits d'armes." From H.R. Schinz's Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen des Menschen. Zurich: Honeggerschen Lithographischen Anstalt, 1845. Ca. 11 x 8. Lithograph by J. Honegger. Full hand color. Very good condition.
Just two years after the publication of Maximilian's monumental Travels In the Interior of North America, H.R. Schinz issued a natural history, with a focus on humans of different races, which included as illustrations images after Bodmer. The very fine lithographs, of which this is one, were drawn by J. Honegger and they are close reduced versions of the aquatint prints. These are the earliest and largest derivatives of Bodmer's images, and are if anything rarer than the aquatints. These are fine examples of the output of on of the greatest chroniclers of Native Americans. $1,600
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Mid-nineteenth century Indian portraits. From various publications. Ca. 1850-60. Wood engravings. Original hand color. Good condition, though some with stains.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a number of histories of the United States were issued containing wood-engraved illustrations of American views, portraits and scenes from our past. Some of these were potraits of famous Native Americans, who were beginning to be looked at as historic figures of note and interest.
Harper's Weekly was a weekly newspaper filled with woodblock illustrations by many of the leading American artists of the last half of the nineteenth century. It, and other illustrated newspapers of the day, provide one of the only sources for contemporary images of the American West during the nineteenth century. Drawn by a number of expert artists, including Frederic Remington, Charles Graham, R.F. Zogbaum and Thomas Moran, these images are just now beginning to be appreciated not only as decorative and affordable, but as having their own historic value for the collector. This is a fine contemporary view of a Cavalry charge during the Sioux War of 1863. $75
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Prints by Arthur Schott. From William Emory's Report of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. Washington:GPO, 1857; Cornelius Wendell, Printer. Ca. 8 x 5 1/2. Color lithographs. Very good condition, except as noted.
The border with Mexico first established at the end of the Mexican-American War ran along the Gila River and unfortunately the only feasible southern route for a railroad ran through Mexico. This prompted renewed negotiations, resulting in the Gadsden Purchase, acquiring for the United States enough land to run the railroad line. William H. Emory, a topographical engineer who had previously done surveying in the southwest was appointed to survey the new border. This is the report that resulted from his survey, and it includes not only the geographic information and maps required, but much other information on the natural history and physical character of these newly acquired lands. The views were drawn by Arthur Schott, a German-born scientist, artist and musician who was appointed as a "special scientific collector," to gather botanical, geological, and zoological specimens, as well as making notes and drawings of the land and its flora and fauna. One of the most important results were his first-hand images of the Indian tribes, including Seminole, Lipan Apache, Yumas, and Kiowa.
In the 1850's the houses of the United States Congress were in a stalemate over many differences between the North and the South. One pressing issue was that of a transcontinental railroad, for there was a crying need for fast and reliable transportation to the burgeoning west. In Congress there was a strong rivalry between a faction which wanted a northern route and one, spearheaded by Jefferson Davis, which wanted a southern route. In 1853 Congress appropriated $150,000 for a survey of the possible routes for a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific. Expeditions were sent out with instructions to not only survey but also to make a full report on the general nature of the country, including flora and fauna, geology, climate, etc.. The reports from these exhibitions were issued in a series of twelve volumes between 1855 and 1861. The northern survey was commanded by Isaac I. Stevens, who had only just resigned his army commission to become governor of the Washington Territory. It covered the area between the 47th and 49th parallels, between St. Paul, MN and Puget Sound on the Pacific coast. It was the most elaborate of the surveys, with a group of natural scientists, including J.G. Cooper, G. Gibbs, and George Suckley, and making the first use of photography west of the Mississippi. The views for this report were drawn by John Mix Stanley and Gustavus Sohon; this is an excellent image of Assinniboines at Fort Union by Stanley. $125
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"The Indian Beauty." Currier & Ives, 1857-72. Small folio. Vignette, ca. 11 3/4 x 9. Lithograph. Bright, original hand color. Narrow margins, just beyond image at top and below imprint at bottom. Otherwise, very good condition. C:3083.
Currier & Ives were America's printmakers. Their large corpus of lithographs documented the interests, tastes and thoughts of many Americans in the nineteenth century. This portrait of "The Indian Beauty" provides a most interesting look at one conception of the American Indian at a time when some felt that Native Americans were savages and impediments towards western expansion. This charming young beauty is decked out in finery that owes more to East Coast Victorian taste than to native design, and indeed her visage is more Caucasian than Indian. While not an accurate picture of a real Indian Beauty, this is an fascinating reflection of what some thought was an appropriate image. $375
From Photographs by Ranger & Austin. "The Onondaga Indians." From Harper's Weekly, New York, February 17, 1872. Full page with text and five images: "The Methodist Church," "Epiphany Chapel," "Offering The Sacrifice," "Captain George," and "The Christian Family." Wood engravings. Very good condition.
A page from this famous illustrated newspaper about the the Onondaga Indians who lived south of Syracuse, New York. Interesting text and images based on photographs. $50
James Adair. The History of the American Indians; Particularly Those Nations Adjoining to the Missisippi [sic], East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia . . . Also an Appendix, containing a Description of the Floridas, and the Missisippi [sic] Lands . . . Georgiana . . . Civilizing the Indians . . . to make all the Colonies more valuable to the Mother Country. London: E. & C. Dilly, 1775. Quarto. 5l., 464pp. with half title. Folding map. Half leather with marbled boards. Ex libris with attractive bookplate in front and two unobtrusive internal ink stamps. Some transferring at title page and map and slight internal spotting, else a fine copy.
The author was actively trading with the Indians of the southeast, and his work included the Catawba, the Cherokee and the Chickasaw among others from 1735 to 1759. While trying to prove that the Indians were descended from a lost tribe of Israel, he recounted many customs. This is a valuable, first hand observation with a superb map. Ref.: Sabin, 155; Vail, 643; and Cumming/DeVorsey 448. $3,400
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