THE GEORGE CATLIN COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS 



IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The collection of original paintings by George Catlin in the U. S. 

 National Museum comprises 445 items, including the majority of the 

 original oil paintings in Catlin's Indian Gallery exhibited by him 

 in the United States and in Europe in the years 1833-1852. By 

 actual coimt 422 of the 507 painting numbers listed in Catlin's exhibi- 

 tion catalog of 1840 are in this collection.^ In addition the collection 

 includes 33 of the 100 paintings which Catlin executed and added to 

 his exhibition between 1840 and 1848. 



When Thomas Donaldson prepared "The George Catlin Indian 

 Gallery in the U. S. National Museum" published in the Annual 

 Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1885 he based his studies 

 upon the entries in Catlin's exhibition catalogs rather than upon a 

 precise check of paintings in the Catlin collection received by the 

 U. S. National Museum. In consequence, the Donaldson catalog lists 

 some 85 numbered items that refer to paintings in the original Catlin 

 Gallery but that are not and never were in the collections of the 

 National Museum. The Donaldson catalog has long been out of print. 

 The checklist that follows has been compiled from the catalog records 

 of the museum. 



To facilitate use of this checklist by students it has been organized 

 primarily by natural and cultural areas (i. e., Great Plains, Wood- 

 lands, Far Northwest) and secondarily by tribes, alphabetically, 

 within each primary area. The reader interested in determining what 

 paintings in the collection refer to the Mandan Indians, for example, 

 will find all the Mandan portraits and scenes listed under that tribal 

 heading in the Great Plains major division. Under each tribe is given 

 a brief statement of its location at the time George Catlin visited it 

 and of the present location of sizable concentrations of descendants 

 of that tribe. Each painting is designated by a short title rather 

 than by the lengthy one Catlin may have given it in his exhibition 

 catalogs. The exhibition catalog number of each painting which was 

 exhibited in Catlin's Indian Gallery is given and the U. S. National 

 Museum catalog number of each painting is listed. 



* Catlin gave more than one number to portraits which included likenesses of 

 two or more individuals. Hence painting numbers in his exhibition catalogs 

 exceed the actual number of paintings. 



507 



