Unidentified photographer (English)
1846 (ca, ?)
Portrait photograph of a group of Ojibwa Indians

Daguerreotype
5 1/2 x 4 1/4 ins (image) 10 7/8 x 9 1/2 ins (frame)
 
Chicago History Museum
Inventory number: ICHi-08800
 
Curatorial description (Accessed: 30 September 2015)
 
Group portrait of six Ojibwa Indians, thought to be from Ontario, Canada. One is potentially identified as Maun-gwu-daus (George Henry) and the others members of his performance troupe. The group of six are standing in front of a fabric backdrop: four men flanked by a woman on the left and a boy on the right. All are wearing feathered headdresses and embroidered and beaded garments. Three of the men hold hatchets, one man and the boy hold bow and arrows.
 
Laid in note: This daguerreotype came to the Chicago Historical Society as a group of Indians taken to Europe in 1845 by George Catlin, however this statement cannot be proved. Laid in note: See correspondence file 1992 Robert Stacey. Date probably 1846, by English photographer.
 
Additional information (source: True West magazine)
 
Six Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians who visited Europe with George Catlin in 1851. George Henry (second from left) had joined Catlin in Paris in 1845 as his business manager. This group had just opened in Brussels when the troupe was ravaged by smallpox. The survivors returned to America while Catlin was left to make his way back to Paris and financial ruin.
 
LL/61571