Beschreibung:

Catlin, George Autograph manuscript signed ("Geo. Catlin"), 2 pages (dimensions here), Paris, 1 April 1846, being Catlin's retained draft or copy of his memorial "To the Hon. the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the United States of America." "A monument to a race of people who will soon have yielded up the whole of their country and their existence to cultivating man."Famously inspired by the sight of a diplomatic Indian delegation visiting Philadelphia, George Catlin dedicated his life to recording in paintings the vanishing way of life of America's Native Peoples. He exhibited his resulting Indian Gallery around the country and throughout Europe, but he harbored the hope of seeing his portraits, views, and ethnographic studies preserved in a permanent home. The present manuscript records the second of Catlin's several attempts to sell his Collection to the United States government. An initial effort to sell the Gallery in 1838 before he took it on tour to Europe failed when the congressional session ended without the matter being acted on. "The Subscriber ... begs leave most Respectfully to Represent That his extensive and unique collection of Indian portraits, customs, costumes, weapons &c, the extent and interest of which is familiar to most of your honourable body" represented an investment on Catlin's part of eight years and $20,000. He continues to describe the Gallery in detail: "the Collection contains nearly 600 paintings of portraiture and customs of 48 different Tribes which he has visited, and the most extensive and valuable collection of costumes, weapons, and other Indian manufactures in the world ... Your Memorialist further represents that during the whole time he has been labouring to make this collection, he has been stimulated by the ambition of making it the nucleus of a Museum of Mankind, to contain the Records, Resemblances, & Manufactures of all the diminishing races of native tribes of the human family." Petitions supporting the purchase of Catlin's Gallery were introduced and discussed in the House and Senate, and a purchase price of $65,000 was mooted. But ultimately, Catlin's ambition was to be thwarted. In 1852, Catlin was forced to sell his Collection to cover personal debts. It was eventually acquired by a Philadelphia industrialist, James Harrison In 1879, seven years after Catlin's death, Harrison's widow donated the Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian Institution, where it now holds the place of honor that Catlin had envisioned for it.