Happy 212th Birthday to George Catlin!

George Catlin, born July 26, 1796, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, went west in 1830 and spent eight years painting portraits of Native Americans. The pictorial and written record of his travels constitutes one of the most remarkable archives of the Plains Indians ever assembled.

From his Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians, Catlin records:

I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000 souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams; and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their villages—their wigwams—their games and religious ceremonies—their dances—their ball plays—their buffalo hunting, and other amusements (containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious collection of costumes, and all their other manufactures, from the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.

Catlin then toured Europe with these paintings over the better part of the next three decades. Shortly after his death in 1872, hundreds of his works became the property of the Smithsonian Institution.

This portrait of George Catlin, painted by William Fisk in 1849, is part of the National Portrait Gallery’s collections. It is currently on display in the neighboring Smithsonian American Art Museum, along with a gallery of Catlin's paintings. You can browse George Catlin’s landscapes, portraits, and other works on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s online collection.