Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
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Archival materials
Photographs
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To: Mrs Margaret Blaker. From: John C. Ewers. December 11, 1962. Subject: Portrait of Big Elk used in frontispiece in Morton's Crania Americana. I think that Big Elk may have been a member of the 1821 delegation of Indians from the Central Plains to Washington. John Neagle painted portraits of some, but probably not all of them, in Philadelphia. I believe you have on file photos of some of these, the originals of which are now in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. King's portraits of a number of these Indians are much better known than these. I know of no King portrait of Big Elk. It is difficult to judge an artist's original style from a lithograph produced from the original by another artist. But, the style certainly doesn't resemble King's work to me. I would assume that because Morton and Neagle were both Philadelphians, the artist is correctly atttributed in the caption on the lithograph. Thank you very much for the print. I should like to have it. In my opinion it is a better rendering of an Indian face than King was accustomed to produce. This may be another reason to believe the artist was John Neagle.
