Published in association with the American Library of Congress, this miniature folio is based on the well-known frontier artwork of Catlin's "North American Indian Portfolio", McKenney and Hall's "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" and Bodmer's "America" These three historic collections of prints and paintings were the first to preserve images of native Americans before their culture was affected by the white man. By chance, George Catlin saw several visiting Indians in outlandish dress in Philadelphia. Entranced, he later wrote, "The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustration, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country, and becoming their historian." Catlin spent almost eight years in the wilderness west of the Mississippi where he was allowed to observe many of the ceremonies and games in the villages, which enabled him to provide a remarkably detailed picture of the tribe's religious and social life. Thomas L. McKenney, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, began hiring artists to record likenesses and regalia of various tribes in 1824.
The McKenney and Hall history included reproductions of 120 Indian paintings by artists such as Charles Bird King, Henry Inman, Peter Rindisbacher and James Otto Lewis. Bodmer's "America" consists of the complete collection of engravings illustrating the travels of Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied in the interior of North America from 1832-1834. Swiss artist Karl Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian on a two-year journey and chronicled a moving encounter as the natives of the trans-Mississippi West came under the sympathetic scrutiny of these two remarkable observers.
