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Source Description

Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. These words, which shaped how Miller’s contemporaries viewed the watercolors, reveal the racism and sexism embedded in 19th-century exploration and colonization of the western part of what is today the United States."The subject of the sketch is a half-breed (that is, his father was a Canadian, his mother an Indian) and one of the noblest specimiens of a Western hunter; - in the outward journey he killed for us about 120 Buffalo; his temper however, when aroused, was uncontrollable." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
33932
label
Antoine Clement
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
33932
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Antoine Clement
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. These words, which shaped how Miller’s contemporaries viewed the watercolors, reveal the racism and sexism embedded in 19th-century exploration and colonization of the western part of what is today the United States."The subject of the sketch is a half-breed (that is, his father was a Canadian, his mother an Indian) and one of the noblest specimiens of a Western hunter; - in the outward journey he killed for us about 120 Buffalo; his temper however, when aroused, was uncontrollable." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.
provenance
William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1858-1860, by commission; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1858-1860
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
watercolors (paintings)
imageCount
3
pageCount
3
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
30.2
height
24.9
dimensionsRaw
H: 11 7/8 x W: 9 13/16 in. (30.2 x 24.9 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Monogram] Lower left: AJM; [Number] Lower right: 90
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
2167
2851
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
c893f0f8e794c5a6
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
e8f557a070c07e2c
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
9c5164f427ca215a
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no