536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



description." The Crows were as "handsome and well-formed set of 

 men as can be seen in any part of the world" ; the Assiniboins "a fine 

 and noble looking race." There were no "finer looking men than the 

 Sioux"; and Catlin used almost the same words to describe the 

 Cheyennes. (Catlin, 1841, vol. 1, pp. 22-23, 49, 64, 210 ; vol. 2, p. 2.) 

 Catlin devoted several chapters of his book to Four Bears, the second 

 chief of the Mandan, whom he called the "most extraordinary man, 

 perhaps, who lives to this day, in the atmosphere of Nature's 

 noblemen." ( See pi. 6, fig. 1.) 



Prince Maximilian's Reise in das Innere Nord-America in den 

 Jahren 1832 his 1834, first published m Coblenz (1839^1), offered a 

 more restrained, scientific description of the Indians of the Upper 

 Missouri. Nevertheless, it was reprinted in Paris and London within 

 3 years, and the demand for it soon exceeded the supply. Its great 

 popularity was due largely to the excellent reproductions of Karl 

 Bodmer's incomparable field sketches of Plains Indians that appeared 

 in the accompanying Atlas. 



Together the works of Catlin and Maximilian-Bodmer, appearing 

 almost simultaneously, greatly stimulated popular interest in the 

 Plains Indians in this country and abroad, and had a strong influence 

 on the work of many other artists. 



They influenced the pictorial representation of Indians during the 

 mid-19th century in three important ways. First, the Catlin- 

 Maximilian-Bodmer example encouraged other artists to go west and 

 to draw and/or paint the Indians of the Plains in the field. Among 

 the best known of these artists were the American John Mix Stanley, 

 the German- American Charles Wimar, the Canadian Paul Kane, and 

 the Swiss Rudolph Friederich Kurz. 



Secondly, they encouraged some of the most able illustrators of 

 the period, who had not visited the western Indian Country, to help 

 meet the popular demand for pictures of Plains Indians by using the 

 works of Catlin and Bodmer for reference. In 1843, 2 years after 

 the first publication of Catlin's popular book, an enterprising Phila- 

 delphia publisher offered Scenes in Indian Life : A Series of Original 

 Designs Portraying Events in the Life of an Indian Chief. Drawn 

 and etched on Stone hy Felix O. G. Darley. This pictures episodes in 

 the life history of a fictional Sioux chief. The artist was then an 

 almost unloiown "local boy," 20 years of age; but he possessed re- 

 markable skill as a draftsman. Darley became the outstanding Ameri- 

 can book and magazine illustrator of the century. Even though most 

 of his finely drawn illustrations are of non-Indian subjects, he re- 

 peatedly pictures buffalo hunts and other Plams Indian activities. He 

 prepared the frontispiece and illustrated title page for the first edition 

 of Francis Parlcman's classic. The California and Oregon Trail (1849) , 

 and toward the end of his life designed a colored lithograph, "Keturn 

 from the Hunt," which has the qualities of spurious realism that only a 



