Beschreibung:

Autograph Letter Signed ("Geo. Catlin"), retained copy of his letter to the Speaker of the House pleading with Congress to buy his collection, 2 pp recto and verso, 4to (270 x 210 mm), Paris, April 1, 1846, marked "Copy of memorial sent to Congress 1st April" in Catlin's hand and "Ge. Catlin's Petition" in another hand, page lightly toned and creased, very fine. CATLIN PLEADS WITH CONGRESS TO BUY HIS COLLECTION OF ART AND ARTIFACTS. George Catlin traveled through the American west 5 times in the 1830s, painting portraits and scenes, writing about his adventures, and collecting native artifacts. By 1838, he embarked on a public speaking tour promoting his "Indigenous Gallery," and by the next year was in Europe. His great desire was to sell his collection to the U.S. government to preserve it intact. He came close in 1838 and 1839, and in this letter, after a private showing of his collection to the King of France and his family, he tries again to make the sale to Congress. Catlin opens by arguing "that his extensive and unique collection of Indian portraits, customs, Costumes, weapons, etc. the extent and content of which is familiar to most of your honorable body. And which cost your memorialist the entire labour of eight years of his life. And an expenditure of more than 20.000 dols. in collecting, is now in Paris, and under the flattering patronage of the King, has for more than two months past occupied a spacious Hall in the Louvre for the private views of His Majesty & the Royal family." He continues, arguing "That the Collection contains nearly 600 paintings of portraiture and customs of 48 different tribes which he has visited, and the most extensive and valuable collection of Costumes, weapons, and other Indian manufactures in the World, to the latter department of which several valuable collections have been added by purchase, in England, and the paintings have been ultimately finished, and all arranged in appropriate & desirable frames. That the Collection will also contain, when fully arranged, 40 full length figures, completely costumed, the heads of which are facsimile casts from the life, of distinguished Indians on the frontier of the United States, and coloured to Nature. / Your Memorialist further represents that during the whole time he has been labouring to make this Collection, he has been stimulated by the ambition of making it the nucleus of a Museum of Mankind, to contain eventually the Records, Remembrances, & Manufactures of all the diminishing races of native tribes of the human family on various parts of the globe." Catlin closes by naming the sum of $65,000, the same as proposed in 1838. Tragically, Congress did not take up this offer, and by 1846 Catlin was forced to liquidate his collection to pay his debts.