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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. "The foreground presents a high bluff, where our Leader is engaged in conciliating some chiefs by making them presents, and smoking the Calumet. A carpet has been spread, and the chief is presenting a pipe already lighted;- this has a universal meaning amonst them, and signifies friendship and good will. Trappers are lazily lying about.- watching the animated scene on the prairie below, or mayhap gazing vacantly - while thinking of their humble homes in old 'Mis-sou-rye.' On the broad prairie beneath, bright Indian Lodges are scattered over the plain until they reach the mountain steeps. The natives are in groups engaged in their games & pastimes,- while some are breathing their horses, others are trafficking - ball playing &c. The great chain called the 'Mountain of Winds' closes the scene." 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
20740
label
The Pipe of Peace
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
20740
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
The Pipe of Peace
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "The foreground presents a high bluff, where our Leader is engaged in conciliating some chiefs by making them presents, and smoking the Calumet. A carpet has been spread, and the chief is presenting a pipe already lighted;- this has a universal meaning amonst them, and signifies friendship and good will. Trappers are lazily lying about.- watching the animated scene on the prairie below, or mayhap gazing vacantly - while thinking of their humble homes in old 'Mis-sou-rye.' On the broad prairie beneath, bright Indian Lodges are scattered over the plain until they reach the mountain steeps. The natives are in groups engaged in their games & pastimes,- while some are breathing their horses, others are trafficking - ball playing &c. The great chain called the 'Mountain of Winds' closes the scene." 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
21.3
height
36.8
dimensionsRaw
H: 8 3/8 x W: 14 1/2 in. (21.3 x 36.8 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Monogram] Lower left: AJM
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
3000
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
47f75445354a84cc