802 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



Mr. Peter Doyle, of Philadelphia (died 1886), the antiquarian a/i. 

 book-dealer, stated in June, 1885, that some of the portraits used h;y 

 Lewis were afterwards used by McKenney and Hall, and the work was, 

 absorbed by this larger and more important publication. This pre- 

 vented its being published to completion in numbers. 



PRESENT GOVERNMENT COLLECTIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIANS 

 AND INDIAN SCENERY. 



Mr. Catlin was the first American painter to conceive and executb 

 the idea of a gallery of portraits of American Indians in oil, together 

 with a collection of objects illustrative of their manners, customs, hab- 

 its, and costumes taken in the field. 



The brush and pencil gave way to the daguerreotype. S. K Carvalho — 

 artist and daguerreotypist to Fremont's last expedition across the Eocky 

 Mountains — in his " Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, 

 1853 and 1859," is believed to have been one of the first, if not the first, 

 artist to use the camera in the service of the United States, on the plains. 

 Speaking of the difdculties surrounding the taking of daguerreotypes 

 in the open air, he says : My professional friends were all of the opinion 

 that the elements would be against my success." 



Mr. Bomar, a photographer, was also with the party, and successfully 

 made photographs by the wax process. 



Mr. Carvalho, on page 67, speaks of the difficulty with which he ob- 

 tained daguerreotypes of Indians, November, 1853, at Cheyenne village, 

 on Big Timber, Kansas : 



I went into tlie village to take daguerreotype views of their lodges, and succeeded 

 in obtaining likenesses of an Indian princess, a very, aged woman, with a papoose, in 

 a cradle or basket, and several of the chiefs. I had great difficulty in getting them to 

 sit still, or even to submit to have themselves daguerreotyped. I made picture, first, 

 of their lodges, which I showed them. I then made one of the old woman and papoose ; 

 when they saw it, they thought I was a supernatural being, and before I left camp, 

 they were satisfied I was more than human. 



To make a daguerreotype view generally occupied from one to two 

 hours. 



After Washington became the seat of government delegations of In- 

 dians were frequently present. Since 1870, however, these visits have 

 become less frequent. The resident artists thus found a field for their 

 talent, and probably the finest possible subjects, as these Indians were 

 the highest type of their tribes. 



The War Department, as far back as 1800, as noted, began the col- 

 lection of Indian portraits, as prior to 1849 the Indians were under 

 charge of that Department. This gallery, referred to herein, was trans- 

 ferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1850, after the Indian Bureau 

 was transferred by law to the Interior Department in 1849. 



Daguerreotype and photographic galleries were quite numerous in all 

 of the Atlantic cities after 1845, and the use of these did away with 

 painting portraits of Indians or in oil colors. Army ofi&cers on the 



