508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



orphan and was apprenticed to a wagon maker in Naples, N. Y., 

 and spent his boyhood there and in Buffalo. 



" In 1834 he removed to Detroit, and in 1835 began to paint por- 

 traits and landscapes. In 1838 and 1839 he lived at Chicago and 

 Galena. At this time he made pictures among the Indians near Fort 

 Snelling. During the years 1839-1842 he resided and painted at 

 New York, Tro}^, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In 1842, accom- 

 joanied by Sumner Dickerman, of Troy, he visited the Indian country 

 in Arkansas and New Mexico and made sketches and pictures of 

 the Indians and Indian scenes. In June, 1843, accompanied P. 

 M. Butler, Governor of Arkansas, to a council with the chiefs of 

 many tribes to arrange a treaty of peace between those tribes and 

 the State of Texas, then independent. Governor Butler having been 

 deputed thereto by the Government of the United States, and having 

 requested the company of Mr. Stanley. The council was attended 

 by General Taylor, Captain Bliss, and agents of the Senecas and 

 Delawares. A flagstaff of considerable height had been raised. Mr. 

 Stanley was painting a design on a white flag to be flung from this 

 staff. The design was an Indian's hand clasping a white man's 

 hand. A young Waco chief, ' Shooting Star,' observing this work 

 suggested that the head of a bulldog be painted below the hands 

 to bite whichever hand might proA^e treacherous. 



"In this year Mr. Stanley visited Chief Lewis Eoss, brother of 

 Chief Jolin Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, at Bayou Menard. He 

 also visited the Creek Nation on the North Fork of Canadian River 

 where he witnessed the Busk, or Green Corn dance. 



" The opportunities afforded by his constant contact with the In- 

 dians were improved by almost daily painting and sketching. In 

 attempting to paint the portrait of the Cherokee chiefs Mr. Stanley 

 found a difficulty in their caprice and superstition. They insisted 

 that portraits should first be painted of Jim Shaw, a Delaware, 

 and of Jess Chisholm, a Cherokee, under whose protection Mr. Stan- 

 ley had been conducted; if these men should consent to sit and 

 should receive no harm from the operation, then the Cherokee 

 chiefs would sit. It was done in this way. They came forward in 

 the order of their rank and were delighted with the idea of being 

 painted, considering it a great honor. 



" Mr. Stanley spent part of the year 1845 in New Mexico. By the 

 year 1846 he had painted 83 canvases, and in January of that year 

 he and Mr. Dickerman exhibited them in Cincinnati and Louisville. 



" In May, 1846, Mr. Stanley returned to the west and visited Keo- 

 kuk at his lodge, and made portraits of the wife of Black Hawk and 

 of chiefs of the Sauks. In October, 1846, he visited Santa Fe to 

 paint still more pictures. Here he joined the expedition of Gen. S. 

 H. Kearney, who led the dangerous march overland to San Diego, 



