Description
McKenney and Hall's The History of the Indian Tribes of North America, Octavo Editions
These wonderful hand-colored lithographs are from various octavo editions of The History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James L. Hall. McKenney worked as the superintendent of the war department for 16 years, during which time he came to be a friend and admirer of the Native Americans. When Charles Bird King created paintings for the U.S. Government to make a survey of the appearances of the natives, McKenney intended to produce a portfolio of them along with written accounts. Thankfully, he employed well-known artist Henry Inman to secretly make copies of them before they were destroyed in the fire at the Smithsonian in 1865. McKenney wrote the biographies, many based on personal interviews while Hall, who had written extensively on the west, wrote the General History of the American Indian.
They were first published as folio images in 1837-1844. While they were popular, they were also very expensive, which led the group to produce more manageable octavo editions. From 1842-1870, several octavo editions were published. Between 1842 and 1858 they were published by either J.T. Bowen or D. Rice & A.N. Hart. Later editions, 1865-1870 were redrawn on the stone and modified slightly by Rice, Rutter & Co.