706 



THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



number of his print attached to our respective names when they shall be delivered to 

 us well executed and in good order : 



Name. 



Residence. 



No. of 

 copies. 



Oliver Wolcott 



Frederick "Wolcott — 

 Jabez N. Huntington. 



D. L. Boardman 



Noah B. Benedict 



SethS. Beers 



Joseph Miller 



Lyman Beecher 



Truman Smith 



Samuel Ames, Jr 



Alexander Abbe 



Mary Lord 



Litchfield „ 



do 



do 



New Milford 



Woodbury 



Litchfield 



Winchester 



Litchfield 



do 



Providence, It. I. 



Litchfield 



do 



Thirteen copies did not seem to warrant the young artist in ordering 

 the plate. If character and standing of subscribers could make up for 

 lack of number, Mr. Catlin was certainly highly favored. 



He returned to Pennsylvania in 1819, where he entered upon the 

 study and then the practice of law in the courts of Luzerne and ad- 

 joining counties. All the time, however, his taste for art was growing, 

 and his dislike of the irksome exactions of the law increasing. Of this, 

 in 1861, he writes : 



During this time ( while practicing law from 1820 to 1823), another and stronger 

 passion was gettiug the advantage of me, that for painting, to which all of my love of 

 pleading soon gave way ; and after having covered nearly every inch of the lawyers' 

 table (and even encroached upon the judge's bench) with penknife, pen and ink, and 

 pencil sketches of judges, jurors, and culprits, I very deliberately resolved to con- 

 vert my law library into paint pots and brushes, and to pursue painting as my future, 

 and apparently more agreeable, profession. 



In 1871 Mr. Catlin related an incident to Prof. Joseph Henry in con- 

 nection with his attempts to practice law at Wilkes Barre : 



My first case was the defense of an Irishman who was arraigned for stealing a 

 handsaw and broad-axe. The prisoner acknowledged to me that he stole the articles, 

 but notwithstanding this, by making the worse appear the better cause, I succeeded 

 in convincing the jury that he was not guilty. The man afterwards asked me whether 

 or not I had informed the jury that he had stolen the articles. "No," was the an- 

 swer; to which the client replied, "How, then, did they acquit me? Did you not 

 say that to get me clear I must tell you the truth ? " 



His sensible father and mother did not interfere and he went to Phil- 

 adelphia to reside and practice the calling of an artist. 



He settled in Philadelphia in 1823 and at once was ad'mitted to the 

 fellowship of the fraternity of artists of that city. Thomas Sully, John 

 STagle, Charles Wilson, and Rembrandt Peale became his friends. He 

 was entirely self-taught as an artist. 



The Catlins seemed an artistic family. Some, however, were miner- 

 alogists ) others bankers ; others painters. 



A letter dated Great Bend, July 14, 1839, from Putnam Catlin to 

 his grandson, Theodore Burr Catlin (nephew of George Catlin), then 



