Wild Horses at Play

During the 1830s, George Catlin traversed the Great Plains to record the appearance and customs of Native people. He was among the first artists of European descent to travel widely in the Midwest and West, spending eight years chronicling scenes of daily life among the 48 indigenous tribes he encountered. In 1844, with the intention of honoring and preserving Native culture in the face of growing oppression by the U.S. government and military, Catlin published a series of 25 hand-colored lithographs based on his sketches and paintings. Though he romanticized many of his subjects, the prints in North American Indian Collection provide a glimpse of Native culture on the U.S. frontier in the 1830s.