George Catlin

author

George Catlin

1796–1872

Drawn to the peoples and landscapes of the American frontier, this 19th-century artist turned travel into a lifelong project of painting, writing, and record-keeping. His portraits and scenes of Native American life remain some of the best-known visual documents from that era.

4 Audiobooks

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2) With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 2) With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing

by George Catlin

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection

by George Catlin

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 2) With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 2) With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing

by George Catlin

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection

by George Catlin

About the author

Originally trained in law, George Catlin left that career behind to become a self-taught artist. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1796, he became known for traveling widely in North America and for painting people, ceremonies, and daily life that many white Americans of his time had never seen firsthand.

In the 1830s he made repeated journeys to the American West, where he created portraits of Native American leaders and large scenes of village life, hunting, and ritual. He later gathered many of these works into his "Indian Gallery" and also wrote books based on his travels, combining art, observation, and storytelling.

Catlin died in 1872, but his work has had a long afterlife. It is valued both as art and as a major historical record, even as modern readers may also approach it with questions about how Native peoples were represented by an outsider in the 19th century.