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Wakaunhaka, or the "Snake-Skin" was a principal
spokesman for the Winnebago nation and a war chief who had eleven
wives. This beautiful portrait is from McKenney & Hall’s Indian Tribes
of North America, Rice & Hart, Philadelphia, 1855. (page size: 6 7/8"
wide x 10 ½" high). This copper plate engraved and original hand
colored plate was based on the original painting by Charles Bird King,
who was employed by the U.S. War Department to paint the Indian
delegates visiting Washington, D.C. Most of Byrd’s original oil
paintings were lost in a fire at the Smithsonian Institution. Thomas
Loraine McKenney, a bureaucrat, who served as Superintendent of Indian
Trade and with the Office of Indian Affairs, joined with James Hall, a
lawyer and writer, saw their publishing product as one way to preserve
an accurate visual record of a quickly receding culture. This
engraving is in excellent condition. |
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