Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians.

Writen during eight years' travel amongst the wildest tribes of Indians in North America, in 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39. In Two Volumes, with four hundred illustrations, carefully engraved from his original paintings. London: Published for the Author by Tilt and Bogue, Third Edition, 1842 Recent buckram, Roy.8vo. (1). viii,264pp. frontispiece and a folding map, plates numbered 3 to 22, 24 to 101, 101«, 102 to 114 with 3 un-numbered plates. (2). viii,266pp. frontispiece map, plates numbered 115 to 136, 138 to 141, 143 to 148, 150 to 158, 160 to 245 (with plate 210«), 248 to 312, and second map, 3 appendices. The plates 1, 2, 23, 137, 142, 149, 159, 246 and 247 are not called for in the Contents lists and this collates exactly the same as the first edition making this a complete copy as published. Page 29/30 and plates 206 and 210« have professional repairs in the margins amd pages 93/94 in volume I and page 101/102 in volume II have slight chipping in the outer margins; all commensurate with having been loose prior to rebinding. A couple of spots in the text, a very nice clean copy in a binder's dark blue buckram with black leather labels lettered in gilt. George Catlin (1796-1872) an American painter and chronicler of the indigenous Americans, started his professional life as a lawyer but in 1821 abandoned his legal practice and moved to Philadelphia to pursue a career as an artist. He was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1824. In 1830, after President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act forcibly expelling all indigenous inhabitants to the east of the Mississippi, Catlin began painting in the western United States to try to record every indigenous tribe before "their passing from the face of the Earth". He made five trips between 1830 and 1836, eventually visiting fifty tribes. When Catlin returned east in 1838, he assembled the paintings and numerous artifacts into his Indian Gallery which exhibited in major cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and New York. Initially sucessful in this enterprise he attempted to sell his collection to the U.S. government; however the United States Congress rejected his petition to purchase the works. In 1839 Catlin took his collection across the Atlantic for a tour of European capitals. While in London he published 'Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians' in 1841 of which this third edition was published the following year. [Howes: C241] We have been selling antiquarian books on Africa, Oceania, archaeology, anthropology, travel and the ancient world for over forty years. All our books are carefully catalogued and they are in excellent condition unless stated in the description. All shipments are fully insured at our expense. All books are carefully packaged in new packaging material and despatched by registered or recorded mail, or by a courier service; the customer is always able to track their shipment. All sales are accompanied by a VAT invoice. Photographs may be supplied if requested.[L].…