artist, author, b. Wilkesbarre, Pa. He practiced law for a few years, but soon deserted it for painting. Upon seeing a delegation of western Indians in Philadelphia, he resolved to rescue "from oblivion the looks and customs of the vanishing races," and devoted the rest of his life to painting portraits during the winter, and wandering among tribes in the summer. He made three trips up the Missouri River (1830-1833), accompanied Colonel Henry Dodge (q.v.) on an expedition to the southern plains, ascended the Mississippi River to St. Anthony Falls, stopping at Prairie du Chien to paint Chief Wabasha and his band, and traversed Wisconsin via Green Bay and the Fox River (1836). Between 1829 and 1838, he produced some 600 realistic paintings of Indians and their life, including some of the Ojibwa and Fox tribes. Then followed a 15-year period of writing, exhibiting in the eastern U.S. and Europe, lecturing before learned societies and at command performances before sovereigns of France and England. Losing his collection through speculation in 1852, he again toured the West, visited Central and South America, and returned to Europe in 1860. In 1871 he settled in New Jersey. Catlin's paintings now in Wisconsin include 22 "Self Portrait Sketches" in the Neville Museum, Green Bay; Anson Dart in Green Lake courthouse; Eleazer Williams ("Lost Dauphin"), De Witt Clinton, James Madison, and Moses Meeker in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. His books, reproducing paintings and describing experiences among Indians, are Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians (2 vols., 1841); Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio . . . (1845); Catiin's Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe (1848); Life among the Indians (1867); Last Rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes (1867). Dict. Amer. Biog.; B. DeVoto, Across the Wide Missouri (Boston, 1947); P. Butts, Art in Wis. (Madison, 1936); WPA MS.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]