North American Indians: Being Letters and Notes on Their Manners, Customs, and Conditions, Written During Eight Years’ Travel Amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America, 1832-1839.

CATLIN, George W.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 149810

Edinburgh: John Grant, 1926.

First Grant edition of this detailed anthropological history. Royal octavo, two volumes, original publisher’s cloth elaborately stamped in gilt, illustrated with 180 color lithograph plates (including maps, 1 of which is folding) containing 320 images from original paintings by Catlin. In very good condition with wear and a few small closed tears to the cloth of the spine extremities. Howes C241; Wagner-Camp 84. Deaccessioned from the Hammersmith Public Libraries Reference Department with bookplates to the pastedowns and small embossed stamps. A very nice example with bright gilt decoration.

The North American Indians was "...the basis for much Plains ethnology.... Today [Catlin's] work is criticized for its unrelenting Romanticism, but it is treasured by historians and anthropologists alike, who value his attention to details and brave dedication to his task" (Tyler, Prints of the American West, pp. 46-55).