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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. "This mode of killing Buffalo is often resorted to, and with attention to certain rules very successfully. The hunters having descried the animals at a distance decided whether it is most prudent to run or approach them. If the latter, as in teh present case, they ascertain how the wind is. If from the buffalo, they immediately commence their approach. If from themselves, they immediately start off making a wide circuit to the other side of the herd. The reason of this is that the animal's keenness of scent is most acute, and will take the alarm at the distance of a mile or more; while his eyesight is obstruced with the great mass of hair covering his head." 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
14828
label
Approaching Buffalo
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
14828
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Approaching Buffalo
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "This mode of killing Buffalo is often resorted to, and with attention to certain rules very successfully. The hunters having descried the animals at a distance decided whether it is most prudent to run or approach them. If the latter, as in teh present case, they ascertain how the wind is. If from the buffalo, they immediately commence their approach. If from themselves, they immediately start off making a wide circuit to the other side of the herd. The reason of this is that the animal's keenness of scent is most acute, and will take the alarm at the distance of a mile or more; while his eyesight is obstruced with the great mass of hair covering his head." 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
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
watercolors (paintings)
imageCount
3
pageCount
3
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
24.1
height
30.6
dimensionsRaw
9 1/2 x 12 1/16 in. (24.1 x 30.6 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Monogram] Lower center: AJMiller
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
243733659d412f57
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
ac83d415d599798b
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
5a311d7ccf45d8c0
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no