INTRODUCTION TO CATALOGUE,' 1840 TO 1844. 



"To the Reader: 



" I wish to inform the visitors to my Collection that, having some 

 years since become fully convinced of the rapid decline and certain 

 extinction of the numerous tribes of the North American Indians ; and 

 seeing also the vast importance and value which a full pictorial history 

 of these interesting but dying people might be to future ages — I sat out 

 alone, unaided and unadvised, resolved (if my life should be spared), 

 by the aid of my brush and my pen, to rescue from oblivion so much of 

 their primitive looks and customs as the industry and ardent enthusiasm 

 of one lifetime could accomplish, and set them up in a Gallery unique and 

 imperishable, for the use and benefit of future ages. 



"I devoted eight years of my life exclusively to the accomplishment 

 of my design, and that with more than expected success. 



" I visited with great difficulty, and some hazard to life, forty-eight 

 tribes (residing within the United States, British, and Mexican Terri- 

 tories), containing about half a million of souls. I have seen them in 

 their own villages, have carried my canvas and colours the whole way, 

 and painted my portraits, &c, from the life, as they now stand and are 

 seen in the Gallery. 



"The collection contains (besides an immense number of costumes and 

 other manufactures) near six hundred paintings, 350 of which are Por- 

 traits of distinguished men and women of the different tribes, and 250 

 other Paintings, descriptive of Indian Countries, their Villages, Games, 

 and Customs; containing in all above 3000 figures. 



"As this immense collection has been gathered, and every painting 

 has been made from nature, by my own hand — and that too when I have 

 been paddling my canoe, or leading my pack-horse over and through 

 trackless wilds, at the hazard of my life — the world will surely be kind 

 and indulgent enough to receive and estimate them, as they have been 

 intended, as true and facsimile traces of individual life and historical 

 facts, and forgive me for their present unfinished and unstudied condi- 

 tion as works of art. 



"GEO. CATLIN." 



*This catalogue is the one issued by Mr. Catlin in London 1840 to 1844, a copy of the one used in 

 America 1837-9, with a few additions. This is also the one used in this volume. It was republished in 

 France by Mr. Catlin in 1844-'48. The text of the title page ia given above on page 7. 



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