McKenney, Thomas L. and James Hall | An exceptional copy of one of the great color plate books of nineteenth-century America

McKenney, Thomas L. and James Hall

History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Philadelphia: Frederick W. Greenough, 1838 [vol. 1]; Daniel Rice and James G. Clark, 1842-1844 [vols. 2-3]

3 volumes, folio (518 x 365 mm). Title-pages (vol. 1, state C; vol. 2, state B; vol. 3, state A), 120 handcolored lithographic plates ("War Dance," state D; "Red Jacket," state F), uncolored lithographic map, subscribers' facsimile signatures; very occasional spotting to plates, with more foxing to "Keokuk" plate, but overall exceptionally clean and fine, scattered foxing to text leaves as usual, more so at the beginning and end of each volume, occasional pale offsetting, title and contents leaves creased in first volume. Uniformly bound in contemporary English red half morocco, marbled boards, spines with raised bands in seven compartments, second and third with brown and black morocco lettering pieces respectively, others with repeat gilt bust portrait of a Native American, all edges gilt, by J. Wright; some very minor rubbing along joints and extremities, with some exposure along board edges. 

First edition, mixed issue, of "one of the most distinctive and important books in Americana" (Reese). 

After six years as Superintendent of Indian Trade, Thomas McKenney had become concerned for the survival of the Western tribes. He had observed unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the Native Americans for profit, and his vocal warnings about their future prompted his appointment by President Monroe to the Office of Indian Affairs. As first director, McKenney was to improve the administration of Native American programs in various government offices. His first trip was during the summer of 1826 to the Lake Superior area for a treaty with the Chippewa, opening mineral rights on their land. In 1827, he journeyed west again for a treaty with the Chippewa, Menominee, and Winnebago in the present state of Michigan. His journeys provided an unparalleled opportunity to become acquainted with Native American tribes.

When President Jackson dismissed him from his government post in 1839, McKenney was able to turn more of his attention to his publishing project. Within a few years, he was joined by James Hall, the Illinois journalist, lawyer, state treasurer and, from 1833, Cincinnati banker, who had written extensively about the West. Both authors, not unlike George Catlin—whom they tried to enlist in their publishing enterprise—saw their book as a way of preserving an accurate visual record of a rapidly disappearing culture. The text, which was written by Hall based on information supplied by McKenney, takes the form of a series of biographies of leading figures amongst the Native American nations, followed by a general "History of the Indian Tribes of North America." The work is now famous for its color-plate portraits of the chiefs, warriors, and squaws of the various tribes—faithful copies of original oils by Charles Bird King painted from life in his studio in Washington (McKenney commissioned him to record the visiting Native American delegates), or worked up by King from the watercolors of the young frontier artist James Otto Lewis. All but four of the original paintings were destroyed in the disastrous Smithsonian fire of 1865, so their appearance in this work preserves what is probably the best likeness of many of the most prominent Native American leaders of the early nineteenth century.

"One of the most costly and important [works] ever published on the American Indians" (Field), "a landmark in American culture" (Horan), and an invaluable contemporary record of a vanished way of life, including some of the greatest American handcolored lithographs of the nineteenth century.

A very fine copy, with exceptionally bright and fresh coloring.

REFERENCE:

BAL 6934; Bennett, p.79; Field 992; Howes M129; Reese 24; Sabin 43410a

PROVENANCE:

Christopher Turnor (armorial bookplate to pastedowns) — Rochford Library (bookplate to pastedown of first volume)