ART OF SETH EASTMAN — McDERMOTT 589 



father-in-law's house in Concord, N.H. She handled the sale of the 

 pictures to the art unions. She went after their old friend Heniy 

 Sibley of Mendota, now Minnesota territorial delegate to Congress, 

 to use his influence to get the painter home. "Capt. E. in his letter 

 tells me to remind you of your promise to endeavour to get him 

 ordered to Washington and if this is refused — perhaps you could 

 succeed in getting his furlough," Mrs. Eastman wrote to Sibley on 

 December 20, 1848. "Will you be kind enough to write me if you 

 think there is any prospect of Capt E's succeeding in being ordered 

 to Washington to paint the pictures for government, or as illustrator 

 to the work on Indians," she requested in another letter. Presently a 

 5 months' leave was granted him but his return was delayed first by 

 the absence of another officer and then by news of cholera en route [18] . 



Once back in Washington, Eastman was able to win the transfer 

 he so much desired and for which he was so ably qualified. War 

 Department Special Orders No. 13, dated Washington, February 27, 

 1850, directed him at the expiration of his present leave (March 1, 

 1850) to report for duty at the Office of the Commissioner of Indian 

 Affairs "for the purpose of completing the work on which he has of 

 late been engaged, relating to the Indians" [19]. 



The phrasing of his orders suggests that Eastman had been de- 

 voting at least part of his leave time to working with Schoolcraft. 

 That this must have been so seems to have been confirmed by the 

 many illustrations Eastman contributed to Schoolcraft's first report, 

 submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on July 22, 1850. 

 Seventy-six pages of carefully detailed and beautifully drawn maps 

 and sketches of Indian weapons, musical instruments, tools, costumes, 

 artifacts, pictographs, of scenic views and of tribal customs are not 

 produced overnight. Eastman was continued on this duty until War 

 Department Special Orders No. 85, Washington, May 10, 1855, re- 

 lieved him from the duty to which he had been assigned five years 

 before and ordered him to rejoin his company [20]. In all, he pre- 

 pared for the first five volumes of "The Indian Tribes of the United 

 States" about 275 pages of illustrations. The engravings credited to 

 Eastman in the sixth volume were restrikes from plates previously 

 used. 



Of particular interest pictorially are the 66 plates after Eastman's 

 own sketches and watercolors (17 others were by Eastman after origi- 

 nal sketches by Schoolcraft, R. H, Kern, E. M. Kera, Lewis Brantz, 

 Lt. Col. J. H. Eaton, Maj. E. Backus, and George Gibbs). Some of 

 these engravings were after slightly changed versions of earlier paint- 

 ings, but for many of the others we know of no oil original, though 

 some may once have existed. But for all the engravings Eastman 

 apparently painted watercolors. 



