Portraits & Historical

McKenny & Hall

History of the Indian Tribes of North America

Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836–1844) is among the most important and visually magnificent works of American ethnographic portraiture. Published in Philadelphia in three folio volumes, the work reproduces 120 hand-colored lithographic portraits of Native American leaders, chiefs, and delegates who visited Washington during McKenney's tenure as Superintendent of Indian Trade. The portraits were executed after paintings by Charles Bird King and James Otto Lewis, and lithographed by the firm of Lehman & Duval. The folio edition of 1844 represents the finest and most complete issue of this landmark publication.