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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. "A Trapper is here preparing that most glorious of all mountain morsels, 'a hump rib' for supper. He is spitting it with a stick, the lower end of which is stuck in the ground near the fire inclined inwards. ... The guard for the watch of night is seated to the left. His duty expires at 12 o'clock when he is relieved by another, who continues the guard until 5 o'clock A.M., when the horses are unloosed to feed preparatory to starting. Breakfast is ready at sunrise, and when finished the tents are struck, luggage packed, horses caught up, and another day's journey commenced." 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
19020
label
Camp Fire, Preparing the Evening Meal
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
19020
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Camp Fire, Preparing the Evening Meal
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "A Trapper is here preparing that most glorious of all mountain morsels, 'a hump rib' for supper. He is spitting it with a stick, the lower end of which is stuck in the ground near the fire inclined inwards. ... The guard for the watch of night is seated to the left. His duty expires at 12 o'clock when he is relieved by another, who continues the guard until 5 o'clock A.M., when the horses are unloosed to feed preparatory to starting. Breakfast is ready at sunrise, and when finished the tents are struck, luggage packed, horses caught up, and another day's journey commenced." 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
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
27.9
height
23
dimensionsRaw
11 x 9 1/16 in. (27.9 x 23 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Signature] Lower left: Miller; [Number] 11
med
watercolor heightened with white on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
2001
2165
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
30ed942a4a6f4c98