Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians: In a Series of Letters and Notes Written During Eight Years of Travel and Adventure Among the Wildest and Most Remarkable Tribes Now Existing.
Catlin, George.
New York: Henry G. Bohn, 1866.
Price:
$1,250.00
About the item
Tenth edition. With 313 black and white engravings on 180 leaves including fold-out map. 2 vols. 8vo. Original red cloth, gilt spine. Rebacked, preserving original spines.
Item #59921
An idealist and dreamer in the best American sense, Catlin's purpose, as noted in these letters, was to "[snatch] from a hasty oblivion what could be saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race." There was a practical, ethnographic element to his project, as well: five years after Catlin painted them, the Mandan tribe was devasted by smallpox (DAB).
