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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. "It is near sunset and the whole camp is very busy, the horses and mules have been driven in, and each man runs towards them as they come, secures his own horse, catches him by the lariat (a rope on the ground from his neck), and leads nim to a good bed of grass, where a picket is driven, and here he is secured for the night, the lariat permitting him to graze to the extent of a circle 25 feet in diameter, and all this is eaten down pretty close by morning. The grass is quite sufficient without any other provender to keep the animals in good condition, if the work given them to do is not too heavy, or if they are not compedlled to make forced marches. The selection of the Camp is of so much importance that scouts are sent out previous to the halt of the Caravan, whose duty it is to select sites combining above all things the two great requisites, an abundance of both water & grass." 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
1130
label
Picketing Horses
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
1130
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Picketing Horses
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "It is near sunset and the whole camp is very busy, the horses and mules have been driven in, and each man runs towards them as they come, secures his own horse, catches him by the lariat (a rope on the ground from his neck), and leads nim to a good bed of grass, where a picket is driven, and here he is secured for the night, the lariat permitting him to graze to the extent of a circle 25 feet in diameter, and all this is eaten down pretty close by morning. The grass is quite sufficient without any other provender to keep the animals in good condition, if the work given them to do is not too heavy, or if they are not compedlled to make forced marches. The selection of the Camp is of so much importance that scouts are sent out previous to the halt of the Caravan, whose duty it is to select sites combining above all things the two great requisites, an abundance of both water & grass." 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
22.2
height
31.7
dimensionsRaw
H: 8 3/4 x W: 12 1/2 in. (22.2 x 31.7 cm)
Source extras
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
cfe14404ac20c204
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
37a6da0ee957f77b
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
2a112ae4507a6188
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no