George Catlin Painted Native American Tribes and Their Cultures During the 1830s

This is Mary Tillotson. And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. A new exhibit of paintings is being shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Today, we tell about the man who painted them. His name was George Catlin. And in this first part of two programs, we tell how he became one of the most important artists in American history. George Catlin loved people. He loved their faces. He loved to paint faces expressing feelings. He understood how to paint feelings. You can look at one of his paintings of a person and see pride, honor, respect, intelligence and humor. George Catlin is most famous for painting Native Americans. In the eighteen thirties, George Catlin traveled into areas of the American West to paint and record the history of Native Americans. He learned more about the culture of Native Americans than most other white people of his time. George Catlin spent a good part of his life trying to show these people to the world. George Catlin showed his paintings in Washington, D.C; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Thousands of people came to see them. Thousands more came to see them in London, England and in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. George Catlin probably did more than any other person to educate the public about the great people who lived in North America before Europeans arrived. We begin our story just a few years after George Catlin was born, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was born in seventeen ninety-six. His family soon moved to New York State near the great Susquehanna River. George Catlin always said his early years were fun. He said he had to have a book in one hand because he was in school. In the other hand he most often had a fishing pole. When he was not reading or fishing, he was drawing the natural world he saw outside each day. George Catlin had little training in art. He mostly taught himself. However, his father made sure that he had a good education. His father was a lawyer and he wanted George to be a lawyer too. George did as his father wished and became a lawyer. However he was not happy. As a young man George Catlin was only happy when he was painting. He truly loved to paint. He decided to stop being a lawyer and become an artist. He moved into a small building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began to paint pictures of people. He was good at this and he loved the work. He painted very small pictures of people. The pictures are called miniatures. Women often wore this kind of painting tied to a ribbon around their necks. Soon, he moved to New York City. He painted miniatures and larger pictures. He

was becoming a well-known artist. He began painting pictures of important people. One was the governor of the state of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Life seemed good for the young artist. George Catlin was doing what he loved and he was making a living as an artist. However, he thought something was missing from his life and his work. He wanted very much to paint something that was important. He wanted to give something to the world of art that would be different. But he had no idea what this could possibly be. In the eighteen twenties, George Catlin saw something that would change his life forever. It was a delegation of Native Americans. About fifteen representatives from several tribes were passing through Philadelphia. They were on their way to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president of the United States. George Catlin had never seen anything like these Native Americans. Their skin was the color of the metal copper. Their hair and eyes were dark black. They wore clothes made of animal skins. They seemed fierce and dangerous. Within a few days, George Catlin made an important decision. He told his family and friends he would study and paint Native Americans. His family was opposed to the idea. They told him it was extremely dangerous. They told him he might be killed. George Catlin answered his friends and family. He said, "Nothing but the loss of my life will prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian." In eighteen thirty, George Catlin traveled to the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. At that time Saint Louis was one of the last cities or towns you would find if you were traveling west. There was not much beyond Saint Louis but the Great Plains. There was nothing but wild, unexplored country. The country beyond Saint Louis could be extremely dangerous. Few white people had ever been further than Saint Louis. However, George Catlin met someone who knew about the lands of the far West and had been there. He also knew many of the Native American tribes that George Catlin wanted to visit. That man was William Clark. Twenty-six years before, William Clark was part of the famous team of Lewis and Clark who were the first white Americans to explore the far West. They had traveled from Saint Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. George Catlin immediately had a friend in William Clark. Mr. Clark liked his idea of painting and learning about Native Americans. He did not think George Catlin's idea was dangerous. He did his best to help. General William Clark was the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately took Mr. Catlin along on a trip up the Mississippi River to a place called Prairie du Chien.

Here George Catlin saw a gathering of Native American tribes. He saw their clothes. He watched them and learned about their culture. He listened to their language. This trip was important to George Catlin because it strengthened his idea and plans to learn about and paint pictures of Native Americans. George Catlin quickly returned home to Philadelphia to raise money for his project. Within a year he traveled west again. This time he went north to Fort Union in an area called the Dakotas. Here he set up his painting equipment and began to paint. He said of this experience: "I have this day been painting a picture of the head chief of the Blackfoot Nation. He is surrounded by his own warriors. He is an important man." The man George Catlin painted that day was named Stu-mick-o-sucks. He was chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot. George Catlin said the Blackfoot were a fierce and warlike tribe. They lived in the area that is now the border between the United States and Canada. The beautiful painting of Stu-mick-o-sucks shows this fierce chief at the height of his powers. The chief of the Blood Tribe was about thirty years old when George Catlin painted his picture. His face is a deep copper color. He has red paint on his jaw. His eyes are intelligent and watchful. His black hair hangs down to his shoulders. Part of his hair falls down between his eyes and is cut straight across. A head covering made of small feathers surrounds his hair. One large feather is worn to the right side of his head. Stu-mick-o-sucks is dressed in his best clothing for this painting. It is clothing that he would wear for special ceremonies. On his chest is a round design made with several colors. The shoulders of his shirt are covered with pieces of cloth and hair to form other designs. George Catlin captured in paint a man of honor and courage, a leader of his people. The artist had wanted to go west to paint Native Americans. With this painting and the many that were to follow, George Catlin succeeded. He had found his life's work. Join us again next week when we continue the story of George Catlin and his efforts to paint the people of the American West. If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you can see Mr. Catlin's famous painting of Blackfoot Chief Stu-mick-o-sucks and many others. Use a search engine and type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen ninety-six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers used this system before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving production line. Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the company he built. Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit. Henry was always interested in machines. He was always experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines. In eighteen seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's copper and brass business was the largest in the world. ONE thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool to do the job. It was something he would never forget. After three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming. The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine. And he made it work again.

Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. " Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said: "I knew in half an hour she was the one for me. " They were married in eighteen eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second birthday. Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really machines that he loved. In eighteen ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a machine called the "silent otto. " It was a device powered by gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. The silent otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself. He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine. He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to the city. While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen ninety-six, Henry had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle. " It looked like two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had a bicycle seat. In eighteen ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of rich men who formed the Detroit automobile company. By the start of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed. Another man might have decided that the automobile business was not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford was just getting started. In the early days of the automobile, almost every car-maker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in which he drove the car himself. The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began.

The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to spread. Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones. Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine Ninety-Nine. " Both won races. And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous. Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named Doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four, almost six hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had earned almost one hundred thousand dollars. Sales were so great that a new factory had to be found. At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three hundred men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was the "Model A. " Then there were the "Model B," "Model C" and "Model F. " They were just a little different from the "Model A" -- one of Ford's most famous cars. Ford's "Model K" car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that anybody can buy. " These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he believed in. The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money. Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to buy the stock of those who disagreed with him. In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be

built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one. " That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took many interesting turns. That will be our story next week. You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. This is Mary Tillotson. And this is Steve Ember with the Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our program about American artist George Catlin and his paintings of Native Americans. Last week, we told how George Catlin had begun his working life as a lawyer. However, he was not happy with this work. He gave up the law and began painting, first in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later in New York City. He became a successful painter. He painted large and small paintings of people. But he still felt that he needed to paint something that was important. George Catlin decided to paint Native Americans after he saw a delegation of Indians on their way to Washington, D.C. By the year eighteen thirty, he had traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri. From there he traveled north into lands that few white Americans had ever seen. It was here that he met the first of the many American Indians he would paint. George Catlin left many letters telling about his travels. He wrote that he often traveled alone, with only his horse Charlie. He carried his painting supplies and enough food for a few days. He also carried a rifle for hunting. Between eighteen thirty and eighteen thirty-six, Mr. Catlin made five trips into areas of the West that were considered unexplored Indian country. He traveled many thousands of kilometers and visited fifty different tribes. George Catlin painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of unusual land that no white person had ever seen before. He painted Native American men, women, and children. He painted their clothes, weapons and villages. He painted the people taking part in religious ceremonies, dances and the hunting of buffalo. He often painted three pictures in one day. George Catlin tried to capture in paint the Native American people and their culture. For example, he painted many pictures of Indians playing a ball game. The game is played with a stick that has a small net at one end. The net is used to control the ball. This Native American game is still played in the United States and other countries today. It is called by the name the French gave it lacrosse.

George Catlin also kept exact records of the people, places and events. Most of his paintings include the names of the people and when they were painted. George Catlin began to have deep feelings about the people that he painted. He learned a great deal about them. He learned that they were honest. They were intelligent. They represented different cultures that had great value. George Catlin believed that many of the men he painted were great leaders in their own culture and would have been great leaders in any culture. He believed the Native American Indians were people of great worth. He also understood that the Indians could not block or stop the westward movement of white PEOPLE IN AMERICA. He believed that the American Indian would quickly disappear. George Catlin put together a collection of his many paintings. He called the display George Catlin's Indian Gallery. He began showing the paintings in many cities in the United States. He also gave long speeches about the Indians he lived with. He told those who came to his talks that he had never felt afraid while living in Native American villages. He said no one ever threatened him or stole anything from him. He tried to make people understand what a great people Native Americans were. He said huge areas of the country should be left for Native Americans to enjoy life as they always had. Many people criticized George Catlin. Some said the people in his pictures did not really look as intelligent and brave as he had painted them. They said the religious ceremonies he painted were false and that Indians did not really have ball games. Some critics said George Catlin had invented these people. The critics made George Catlin angry. He began to seek white Americans who had traveled in Indian country. He asked army officers, fur traders and others to sign documents that said the people and events he painted were real. The critics stopped saying his paintings were a lie. George Catlin took his collection of paintings to Europe. He also took many objects made by American Indians. The George Catlin Indian Gallery was popular in London, England and in Paris, France. French art experts praised his paintings. His paintings and speeches were popular. Many people paid money to visit his Indian Gallery, but he did not earn enough money. He soon had financial problems. Mr. Catlin returned to the United States. There were about five hundred paintings in his Indian Gallery. He offered to sell them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Several people worked to have the United States government buy the paintings for the Smithsonian. However, Congress never approved a measure needed for the sale.

George Catlin found a buyer for his Indian Gallery. It was Joseph Harrison, a businessman in Philadelphia. Mr. Harrison bought the paintings but did nothing with them. For many years they were left in a room in his factory. Mr. Catlin was able to pay most of his debts from the money he earned by selling his paintings. He began painting again. His new paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's famous building called The Castle. For the last year of his life, he worked in a room in that building provided by the museum. George Catlin died in eighteen seventy-two. His famous Indian Gallery paintings were still in a room in Mr. Harrison's factory. A fire at the factory almost destroyed them. In eighteen seventy-nine, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was Spencer Baird. Mr. Baird knew the historic value of George Catlin's paintings. The owner of the paintings, Joseph Harrison, had died. So Mr. Baird began to negotiate with Joseph Harrison's wife, Sarah. He asked her to give the collection to the Smithsonian. Mrs. Harrison agreed. She gave George Catlin's famous Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian. The gift also included many Indian objects that Catlin had collected. These included maps, books, letters and other papers that told George Catlin's story. Sarah Harrison's gift was one of the most important ever received by the Smithsonian. For more than one hundred twenty-five years, the public has been able to see George Catlin's paintings. Art critics, art students and western history experts have studied and examined them. Today, George Catlin's Indian Gallery is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. The paintings have been carefully cleaned for this event. They look new and fresh, as if they were painted recently. Art experts have praised and criticized George Catlin's work. Some say he was not a good artist and could not paint the human body well. Others say this is because he painted very quickly. Most critics say his paintings of people's faces are beautiful. They seem alive and real. You can see many of George Catlin's paintings on the Internet by using a search engine. Type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. George Catlin was afraid the American Indian would disappear from the Earth. That was one of the reasons he painted so many different tribes and different people. He wanted a record to leave for history. George Catlin was wrong. The American Indian did not disappear. But his paintings provide a close look at the people, places and events from a time that is now long gone.

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Mary Tillotson. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.
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