EXPLANATION OF PLATES
The art of photography has made it possible to preserve a pictorial record of the dwellings and other structures of native tribes beyond the Mississippi, and many early photographs, together with drawings and paintings by various artists, have been selected to illustrate the present work.
Plate 1
One of the original drawings by Griset reproduced by woodcuts in Col. R. I. Dodge's work The Plains of the Great West, 1877. The reproduction is now made exact size of the original. Collection of David I. Bushnell, jr.
Ernest Henry Griset, born in France, 1844; died March 22, 1907. Lived in England, where he did much of his work. In 1871 he exhibited at Suffolk Street. Some of his paintings are hung in the Victoria and Albert Museum. More than 30 examples of his work belong to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. "His reputation rests on his water-color studies of animals, for which he was awarded prizes in London. Two of his best-known works are Cache-cache, and Travailleurs de la fôret."
Plate 2
Reproduction of one of the five paintings by Stanley now in the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.
James M. Stanley, born in Canandaigua, New York, January 17, 1814; died April 10, 1872. He moved to Michigan in 1835 and became a portrait painter in Detroit; two years later removed to Chicago. About this time he visited the "Indian Country" in the vicinity of Fort Snelling, and there made many sketches. Returned to the eastern cities, where he spent several years, but in 1842 again went west and began his wanderings over the prairies far beyond the Mississippi, reaching Texas and New Mexico. His Buffalo Hunt on the Southwestern Prairies was made in 1845. From 1851 to 1863 Stanley lived in Washington, D. C., during which time he endeavored to have the Government purchase the many paintings which he had made of Indians and of scenes in the Indian country, but unfortunately he was not successful. His pictures were hanging in the Smithsonian Building, and on January 24, 1865, when a large part of the building was ruined by fire, only five of his pictures escaped destruction, they being in a different part of the structure. The five are now in the National Museum, including the large canvas shown in this plate.
Plate 3
This is considered to be one of Wimar's best works. The original is owned by the City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri. Size of canvas, 36 inches high, 60 inches long.