GEORGE CATLIN. 345 



portraits the pictures consist of costumes in groups, hunting 

 scenes, views illustrating customs, etc. A price was offered 

 for this in Europe, but Mr. Catlin, always loyal to his country, 

 thought he could join it to the collection still in the hands of 

 Mr. Harrison and sell both to the Government. Subsequent to 

 his death this was attempted by his daughters. Frelinghuysen 

 introduced the bill ; Prof. Joseph Henry spoke before the Sen- 

 ate Library Committee in its favour ; it was backed by letters 

 from all the college faculties of the United States, but again 

 the motion was lost, and the cartoon collection still remains in 

 the possession of his daughters. In 1871, after an absence of 

 thirty-two years, he returned to the United States, and exhibited 

 his cartoon collection in New York and Washington until his 

 death. Mr. Catlin's last illness was contracted from an expos- 

 ure which he suffered in Washington, in October, 1872. He 

 was removed thence to Jersey City, where his daughters and 

 his brother-in-law, the Hon. Dudley S. Gregory, were living, 

 and died there in December. 



The George Catlin Indian Gallery of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum consists of his first collection of pictures and 

 other articles given to the Smithsonian Institution by Mrs. 

 Harrison, as above stated. A full description of this collection, 

 with notes and statistics, a memoir of Catlin, extracts from 

 his works, and other related matter, was prepared by Mr. 

 Thomas Donaldson and published in the Smithsonian Report 

 for 1885. This description, upon which the present account is 

 based, occupies 947 pages and is illustrated with 144 plates, 

 most of which are engravings from Catlin's paintings. In his 

 pictorial work he sought to represent the truth, and invented 

 nothing. He regarded the domestic and everyday customs, 

 habits, and manners of the Indians as the essentials to the 

 proper study of their origin and descent, and aimed to repro- 

 duce them thoroughly. His principal book was Letters and 

 Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North 

 American Indians ; written during eight years of travel among 

 the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, first published 

 in 1841, and reproduced in several editions, in English and 

 German, with divers variations of title. He wrote also Cat- 

 lin's Notes in Europe, two volumes; Life amongst the Indians, 

 a book for youth, 1867, which was translated into French. 

 The list also includes works on the O-kee-pa, a religious cere- 

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