Ask the Scholar

Page 1 of 3
I can add historical knowledge about this page.

Page image

Page 1

Document 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."This once powerful and ambitious tribe has dwindled away to a mere shadow of what it was at the time of the Revolution. During the war between the French & English for predominance in America, each of these parties made every effort to engage this tribe as an ally." 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.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
354547c507e4ce30
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
6967
Core
obj
Type
object
DTO data
{
    "id": "6967",
    "sourceUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.1940.41",
    "contentType": "object",
    "stage": "normalized",
    "title": "Iroquois Indian",
    "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.\"This once powerful and ambitious tribe has dwindled away to a mere shadow of what it was at the time of the Revolution.  During the war between the French & English for predominance in America, each of these parties made every effort to engage this tribe as an ally.\" 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",
    "citationUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.1940.41",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "genreSpecific": [
        "watercolors (paintings)"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "imageCount": 3,
    "pageCount": 3,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensions": [
        {
            "units": "cm",
            "width": 32.3,
            "height": 25.4
        }
    ],
    "dimensionsRaw": "H: 12 11/16 x W: 10 in. (32.3 x 25.4 cm)"
}

Context sent to Scholar

Document identity
{
    "localId": "6967",
    "label": "Iroquois Indian",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object",
    "citationUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.1940.41"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "6967",
    "sourceUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.1940.41",
    "contentType": "object",
    "stage": "normalized",
    "title": "Iroquois Indian",
    "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.\"This once powerful and ambitious tribe has dwindled away to a mere shadow of what it was at the time of the Revolution.  During the war between the French & English for predominance in America, each of these parties made every effort to engage this tribe as an ally.\" 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",
    "citationUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.1940.41",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "genreSpecific": [
        "watercolors (paintings)"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/art/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "imageCount": 3,
    "pageCount": 3,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensions": [
        {
            "units": "cm",
            "width": 32.3,
            "height": 25.4
        }
    ],
    "dimensionsRaw": "H: 12 11/16 x W: 10 in. (32.3 x 25.4 cm)"
}
Document source extras
{
    "inscriptions": "[Monogram] Lower left: AJMiller",
    "med": "watercolor on paper",
    "creator_ids": [
        "4486"
    ],
    "collection_ids": [
        "EAN"
    ],
    "exhibition_ids": []
}
Page context
{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://art.thewalters.org/images/raw/PS1_37.1940.41_Fnt_DD_T14.jpg",
    "mediaId": "354547c507e4ce30"
}