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MCKENNEY, Thomas L. (1785-1859) and James HALL (1793-1868)
Tish-Co-Han, A Delaware Chief
Philadelphia: E. C. Biddle, 1837. Lithograph, drawn, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen after a portrait by Gustavus Hesselius. In excellent condition. Image size (including text): 12 1/2 x 9 inches. Sheet size: 18 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine image from McKenney and Hall's 'Indian Tribes of North America' of the Delaware chief who signed the famous or infamous Walking Purchase. The Delaware, who called themselves the Leni-lenape, migrated to Ohio in the 1750s.
Tishcohan (or He Who Never Blackens Himself) was painted by Gustavus Hesselius at the request of the Penn family around 1735. In 1737, he was one of the Lenape defrauded in the Walking Purchase, in which the Penns' "walkers" were able to carve out a 1200 square mile property in a day and a half walk. When the Lenape tried to return their payment of buckskins to have their land back, they were naturally refused. The Delaware or Leni-lenape, departed for Ohio soon thereafter.
Mckenney and Hall's 'Indian Tribes of North America' has long been renowned for its faithful portraits of Native Americans. The portraits are largely based on paintings by the artist Charles Bird King, who was employed by the War Department to paint the Indian delegates visiting Washington D.C., forming the basis of the War Department's Indian Gallery. Most of King's original paintings were subsequently destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian, and their appearance in McKenney and Hall's magnificent work is thus our only record of the likenesses of many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century. Numbered among King's sitters were Sequoyah, Red Jacket, Major Ridge, Keokuk and Black Hawk. 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 Indian 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 Winebago 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 1830, McKenney was able to turn more of his attention to his publishing project. Within a few years, he was joined by James Hall, a lawyer who had written extensively about the west. McKenney and Hall saw their work as a way of preserving an accurate visual record of a rapidly disappearing culture. (Gilreath).
Cf. Howes M129; cf. Bennett 79; cf. Field 992; cf. Lipperheide Mc 4; cf. Reese American Color Plate Books 24; cf. Sabin 43410a
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#20576 $1,250.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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