“NOTHING SHORT OF THE LOSS OF MY LIFE SHALL PREVENT ME FROM BECOMING THEIR HISTORIAN”: CATLIN’S NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

CATLIN, George. North American Indians: Being Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Conditions, Written During Eight Years' Travel Amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1903. Two volumes. Large octavo, original pictorial red cloth, gilt and black cover and spine illustrations, top edges gilt, uncut. $2500.

Later edition of Catlin’s monumental history, with over 300 illustrations on 180 plates, including three maps (one colored and folding). A lovely set in the original pictorial cloth.

A young lawyer turned portraitist, Catlin set out for the West from his home in Pennsylvania in 1830 to record on canvas North American Indians and their way of life. His eight years among the major tribes of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains resulted in his "Indian Gallery," an enormous collection of artifacts, as well as more than four hundred paintings, including portraits and scenes of tribal life. His North American Indians, first published with uncolored plates in 1841, is "one of the most original, authentic and popular works on the subject" (Sabin 11536). "The history and the customs of such a people," Catlin wrote, "preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy of the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life, shall prevent me from becoming their historian" (Hassrick, 15). Owner ink stamps on verso of title page and last leaf of text in each volume.

A lovely set in fine condition, gilt bright.