McKenney and Hall Pl. 65, Me-na-wa, A Creek Warrior
Oppenheimer Editions Print
20" x 14"
Limited edition of 750
Published 2002
Blind embossed with the Oppenheimer Editions and The Field Museum logos
History of Indian Tribes in North America, The Oppenheimer Field Museum Edition
History of Indian Tribes in North America was produced between 1836—1844. Edward C. Biddle drew the images on stone to produce the lithographs and James Hall wrote the text. These richly hand-colored lithographs are today one of the most important and attractive 19th-century American ethnographic works created.
Thomas McKenney was superintendent of the war department under four presidents, Madison, Monroe, Adams and Jackson. By all accounts, he was a friend and admirer of the Native Americans and believed that the peace treaties he helped negotiate would be honored.
Charles Bird King painted the visiting chiefs as they came to Washington to negotiate treaties filling the war department’s gallery. Thomas McKenney dreamed of producing a portfolio of these images and written accounts. Fortunately, he made copies of the paintings with the help of the prominent artist, Henry Inman because the original paintings by Charles Bird King were destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian.
Established in 1999, Oppenheimer Editions has partnered with prestigious museums to make prints from their holdings. Works from the New-York Historical Society’s unrivaled collections of John James Audubon’s watercolors and the Hudson River School paintings are examples of art that otherwise would be unobtainable. Among the institutional collections we have partnered with are the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These are not mere reproductions. They are limited-edition fine art prints made with the finest quality archival pigments on rag watercolor paper and executed to exacting standards.