562 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



and yelps that seemed more sensibly to affect His Royal Highness's nerves, and at 

 •which Mr. Murray removed Avith him to a more distant part of the room, from which 

 point he looked on with apparent delight. 



Several newspapers in London, in 1841, thus describe Catlin's Indian 

 Gallery at Egyptian Hall. 



[From the Spectator.] 



Catlin's Indian Gallery, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, is a museum of the vari- 

 ous tribes of North American Indians. 



Mr, Catliu is an enterpirising American artist, who has devoted eight years to the 

 delineation of scenes and persons, and the collection of objects to form a permanent 

 record of the characteristic features and customs of the different tribes of Indians in 

 North America, now fast becoming extinct by the combined operation of small-pox, 

 spirit- drinking, and war. The walls of a room one hundred and six feet in length 

 are entirely covered with portraits of Indian men, women, and children, in their re- 

 spective costumes, some small whole-leughths, others busts the life-size, to the number 

 of three hundred and ten; and two hundred views of landscape scenery, native 

 villages, games, customs, and hunting-scenes, all painted on the spot. Besides the 

 pictures, the dresses worn by several tribes, and a numerous collection of weapons, 

 pipes, ornam ents, &c., are arranged round the room ; and in the center is set up a 

 wigwam of the "Crow" tribe, a conical tent, twenty-five feet high, made of buffalo- 

 skins, dressed and painted, supported by thirty poles meeting at the top, and capable 

 of sheltering eighty persons. 



To attempt anything like a detailed description of the contents of such a museum 

 would require a volume ; to characterize it generally in our limited space is difficult. 

 It would require hours of attentive study to become fully acquainted with the multi- 

 farious articles. The several tribes are distinguished in the catalogue ; the dresses 

 are all so fantastic and the physiognomies so varied that it would be difficult to class 



them. 



[From the Morning Post. J 



Catlin's Indian Gajllery. — This valuable collection of portraits, landscapes, 

 scenes from savage life, weapons, costumes, and an endless variety of illustrations of 

 Indian life, real as well as pictorial, continues to attract crowds of spectators. We 

 are happy to find our prediction fully borne out by fact that the exhibition only re- 

 quired to be fully made known to the public to be properly appreciated, The most 

 pleasing attention is paid by Mr. Catliu and his assistants to gratify the curiosity of 

 visitors, to point out to notice the peculiarities of the various subjects through which 

 they wander, and to explain everything which strikes the eye and attracts the ob- 

 server to inquire into its use or meaning. During our visit on Saturday the company 

 were startled by a yell, and shortly afterwards by the appearance of a stately chief 

 of the Crow Indians stalking silently through the room, armed to the teeth and 

 painted to the temples, wrapped up in a buffalo robe, on which all his battles were 

 depicted, and wearing a tasteful coronet of war-eagle's quills. This personation was 

 volunteered by the nephew of Mr. Catliu, who has seen the red man in his native 

 wilds, and presents the most proud and picturesque similitude that can be conceived 

 of the savage warrior. His war-whoop, his warlike appearance and dignified move- 

 ments seem to imjiress the assemblage more strikingly with a feeling of the character 

 of the North American Indian than all the other evidences which crowded the walls. 

 Subsequently he appeared in another splendid costume, worn by the braves of the 

 Mandan tribe, also remarkable for its costly and magnificent head-dress, in which we 

 see " the horns of power " assume a conspicuous place. The crowds that gathered 

 around him on each occasion were so dense that Mr. Catlin could scarcely find space 

 to explain the particulars of the costumes; but we are glad to find he is preparing a 

 central stage, where all may eujoy a full and fair sight of "the red man" as he issues 

 from his wigwam, clad in the peculiar robe and ornaments of his tribe, to fight, hunt, 

 smoke, or join in the dances, festivals, and amusements peculiar to each, nation. 



