Descripción
3 volumes, folio (19 ¾ x 14 in.; 50.2 x 35.6 cm). 120 handcolored lithographed plates heightened with gum arabic, including 117 portraits after C.B. King and 3 scenic frontispieces after Rindisbacher, leaf of lithographed maps and table, 17 pages of facsimile signatures of subscribers, leaf of testimonials regarding the genuineness of the portrait of Pocahontas, state C of vol. 1 title-page, state D of the War Dance frontispiece and state F of Red Jacket, vol. 2 title-page in state B, vol. 3 title-page in state A; vol. 3 frontispiece plate trimmed and repaired, faint text offsetting to 4 plates in same, WITHAL AN IMMACULATE, BRIGHT COPY WITH VIVID COLORING. Half green morocco over pebbled green cloth, gilt titles in decorative border on upper covers, the spine in 7 compartments gilt (2 lettered), yellow-coated endpapers; rebacked and recornered to style; covers rubbed, a few water spots on front cover of vol. 2, dampstaining to flyleaves in all three volumes. FIRST EDITION, "OF THE GRANDEST COLOR PLATE BOOK ISSUED IN THE UNITED STATES UP TO THE TIME OF ITS PUBLICATION AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE CENTURY" (Reese), with Volumes I and 2 in the second issue, and Volume 3 in the first issue. Its long publication history spanned twelve years and involved multiple lithographers (mainly Peter S. Duval and James T. Bowen) and publishers, but the final product is one of the most important and distinctive books in Americana. Soon after his appointment as Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1816, Thomas L. McKenney struck upon the idea of creating an archive to preserve the artifacts and history of Native Americans. The Archives of the American Indian became the first national collection in Washington and were curated with great care by McKenney throughout his tenure as Superintendent and then in 1824 as first head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A visit to the studio of artist Charles Bird King inspired McKenney to add portraits to the Archives. For the next twenty years, King would capture the likenesses of the many visiting Indian dignitaries who had come to Washington to meet the "Great Father" (i.e., the president), as well as rework the less skillful portraits of James Otto Lewis. The original paintings were deposited with the War Department and eventually transferred to the Smithsonian, where in 1865, a fire destroyed most of them. Consequently, their appearance in Indian Tribes is the only recorded likeness of many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century. McKenney was preparing to publish a collection of the Indian portraits when he lost his position at the Bureau during Andrew Jackson's house cleaning in 1830. Other setbacks befell the project: publishers went bankrupt, investors dropped out, and expenses soared mostly like as a result of the depression that followed the financial panic of 1837. McKenney finally enlisted Ohio jurist and writer James Hall to assist with the project. Hall completed the individual biographies of each subject and put the finishing touches on the general history. Meanwhile, James Otto Lewis, likely bitter that he would receive no credit for his portraits that King had reworked, published his own Aboriginal Port-Folio in 1835. Unfortunately for Lewis, the illustrations were of inferior quality and few of its later numbers were ever completed. By contrast, McKenney and Hall's work was a resounding artistic success-the lithographs were of such impeccable quality that John James Audubon commissioned James T. Bowen to produce the illustrations for a revised edition of his Birds of America. While an artistic tour de force, the work wasn't a financial success. Its exorbitant price prohibited all but the wealthy and public libraries from subscribing. REFERENCES: BAL 6934; Bennett 79; Field 992; Howes M129; Lipperheide Mc4; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 24; Sabin 43410a; Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King (L64F11bisE). N° de ref. del artículo 65ERM0210
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