THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 777 



L'Observateur, Gazette de France, and other journals were particularly 

 pronounced in favor of the industry of the artist and the completeness 

 and value of the gallery. 



Galignani's Messenger, in 1845, said : 



The Catlin Museum. — The utter strangeness of this remarkable exhibition, dis- 

 playing, it may be said, a living tableau of the customs and habitudes of a race who, 

 while the march of time has been effecting the most extraordinary changes in the great 

 family of mankind, still remain in a primative state of nature, at first misunderstood 

 by the Parisian public, has now become an object of general and intense curiosity. 

 Mr. Catlin' s collection of the arms and utensils of the various tribes, with their wig- 

 wams, the identical habitations which have ere now sheltered them from the tem- 

 pest in the depths of some North American forests, they carry back the mind, as it 

 were, to the infancy of the human species, "when wild in woods the noble savage 

 ran." The illusion, for it nearly amounts to that, is wonderfully aided by an exam- 

 ination of Catlin's sketches, taken upon the spot, and often in the midst of the dan- 

 gers he has depicted with spirited fidelity. These paintings, boldly and rapidly 

 thrown off, are illustrative of every phase of savage existence. We have to thank 

 Mr. Catlin for an insight into the lives and history of this most interesting race, which 

 has all the charms of the wildest romance, but which books can never supply. 



EFFORTS TO HAVE CONGRESS PURCHASE THE CATLIN INDIAN GAL- 

 LERY AND MUSEUM. 



Beginning with 1846, when the Joint Committee on the Library rec- 

 ommended to Congress the purchase of the Catlin collection, and down 

 to 1874, a period of more than twenty- seven years, several attempts were 

 made to have Congress purchase the Catlin collection. Abillto this end 

 passed the House in 1853, but was defeated in the Senate by one vote. 

 Mr. Catlin was sorely grieved at this, especially so from the fact that one 

 Senator, who had been an officer in the First Dragoons, and after a long 

 speech of compliment to Mr. Catlin and his art, and in which he said 

 (in substance) that Mr. Catlin was the only man who had painted In- 

 dians, voted against the purchase. 



In London, in 1846, several American gentlemen petitioned Congress 

 to purchase the Catlin collection, they being aware of efforts then being 

 made to purchase the collection and keep it in Europe. Amongst these 

 were Louis McLane, Thomas Aspinwall, George Peabody, George W. 

 Atwood, E. J. Coates, Charles Baring Lander, E. Howe Gould, and 

 Georpe P. Putnam. 



In December, 1871, Mr. Catlin sent to Congress the following petition: 

 his last one in this connection : 



PETITION OF GEORGE CATLIN. 



To the honorable the Speaker and House of Representatives of the United States : 



I, George Catlin, a citizen of the United States, beg leave most respectfully to call 

 your attention to the important document accompanying this, which shows the value 

 which was attached by American citizens and American artists abroad to my Indian 

 collection, at that time on exhibition in Eueope ; and also the value set upon it by a 

 Joint Committee on the Library, which committee reported to Congress (as seen in their 

 accompanying report) in favor of its purchase in 1846, and that the price ($65,000) 

 which I desired for it was moderate. 



