Museum of History,
28th April, 1845.
A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE
OF
CATLIN’S INDIAN COLLECTION;
CONTAINING
PORTRAITS, LANDSCAPES, COSTUMES, ETC.,
AND
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
COLLECTED AND PAINTED ENTIRELY BY MR. CATLIN,
DURING EIGHT YEARS’ TRAVEL AMONGST FORTY-EIGHT TRIBES, MOSTLY SPEAKING DIFFERENT LANGUAGES.
Exhibited three years, with great success, in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London.
I wish to inform the visitors to my Collection that, having some years since become fully convinced of the rapid decline and certain extinction of the numerous tribes of the North American Indians; and seeing also the vast importance and value which a full pictorial history of these interesting but dying people might be to future ages—I sat out alone, unaided and unadvised, resolved (if my life should be spared), by the aid of my brush and my pen, to rescue from oblivion so much of their primitive looks and customs as the industry and ardent enthusiasm of one lifetime could accomplish, and set them up in a Gallery unique and imperishable, for the use and benefit of future ages.