The Lost Museum Archive

After spending eight years traveling through the American West documenting Indian life, the Pennsylvania-born George Catlin took his artwork and artifacts on tour to Europe in 1840. Catlin tried to make a living displaying his paintings throughout England and France, but high expenses and limited interest meant he had to continually fuel public attention by hiring locals to dress as Indians and staging reenactments of war scenes. Then in 1843 a group of traveling Ojibwe contacted Catlin and joined his exhibition for a short period, soon to be followed by fourteen Iowa who toured with him in 1844 and 1845. In this print Catlin portrays Se-non-ti-yah, an Iowa medicine man, speaking to a London audience, which he did regularly while touring with Catlin.