AE Artwork

William Woodruff, engraver. Messrs. Pattie and Slover Rescued from Famish (c. 1837). Courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University

Artwork of The American Elsewhere

Click on the images for larger full-color versions and for more information. All Alfred Jacob Miller works link to the Fur Traders and Rendezvous website. All images under Fair Use.

Fig. 1.1. This image originally appeared in George Wilkins Kendall, Narrative of the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition (1844). The vast buffalo herds became emblematic of American elsewhere, and the chase became a ubiquitous feature of the adventurelogue. Jordan and Halpin after J. G. Chapman, A Scamper among the Buffalo (ca. 1844). Courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University. Links to Wikimedia Commons.

Fig. 1.2. After his 1837 excursion to the Wind River Mountains, Alfred Jacob Miller completed numerous works that captured the romantic expanses of Western landscapes. Alfred Jacob Miller, Green River—Oregon (1858-1860). Watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD

Fig. 1.3. This image originally appeared in James O. Pattie, The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie of Kentucky (1837), edited by Timothy Flint. Hardships like thirst and starvation added to the perils that instigated emotional experiences that adventurers anticipated would lead to personal transformation. William Woodruff, engraver. Messrs. Pattie and Slover Rescued from Famish (c. 1837). Courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Fig. 1.4. Although he left little of his own records, others celebrated Joseph R. Walker as the model adventurer. Alfred Jacob Miller, Portrait of Captain Joseph Reddeford [sic] Walker (n.d.). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE.

Fig. 2.1. In the early 1820s, improving print technology enabled Samuel Seymour to produced one of the earliest published, first-hand visual depictions of the Rocky Mountains. Francis Kerney after Samuel Seymour, View of the Rocky Mountains on the Platte 50 miles from their Base (c. 1822). Engraving. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Fig. 2.2. Charles Deas excelled at painting narrative scenes infused with the violence inherent in adventure, capturing emotional intensities like defiance and terror. The Death Struggle (1845). Oil on canvas. Original painting at the Shelburne Museum. The version reprinted in The American Elsewhere is an engraving by William G. Jackman (c. 1846). Courtesy of the Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. Links to Wikimedia Commons.

Fig. 2.3. In 1831, Washington Irving was already one of the most read US authors, and a year later, he embarked on his prairie tour. Moseley Isaac Danforth after Charles R. Leslie, Washington Irving, Esqre (1831). Stipple engraving and etching on chine collé on off-white paper. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

Fig. 3.1. The material culture of the backwoodsman—the fringed buffalo-skin jacket, fur cap, buckskin moccasins, and long rifle—attested to the exceptionalism of the American male. Abel Bowen, frontispiece for Estwick Evans’s A Pedestrious Tour (1819). Woodcut. Courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Fig. 3.2. Adventurers intended that the extravagance of their attire mirror their vital manliness. Alfred Jacob Miller, Trappers (1858-1860). Watercolor and gouache on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

Fig. 3.3. For many adventurers, Native American culture represented unfettered and impassioned lives. Alfred Jacob Miller, Yell of Triumph (1858-1860). Watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 3.4. The figure of an Indian standing proud and indomitable against the forces that threatened his ruin struck at the essence of romantic melancholy. Alfred Jacob Miller, Crossing to the North Fork of the Platte River (1858-1860). Wash heightened with white on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 3.5. For some, James Kirker epitomized the blurry distinction that they made between the adventurer and the white man turned savage. Thomas M. Easterly, James Kirker (Don Santiago Kirker, King of New Mexico) (1847). Daguerreotype. Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.

Fig. 3.6. Charles Deas displayed Long Jakes at the American Art-Union in New York City, and it attracted crowds of urban dwellers who recognized the embodiment of peerless masculinity. Deas, Long Jakes, the Rocky Mountain Man (1844). Oil paint on canvas. Courtesy of the Denver Art Museum. For more information see post on Elsewheres blog.

Fig. 4.1. Adventurers often expressed a nurturing sentimentality when tending to comrades in plight. Alfred Jacob Miller, Free Trappers in Trouble (1858-1860). Watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 4.2. During their travels, romantic adventurers cherished their lonesomeness inspired by the solitudes in the elsewhere. Samuel Seymour, View of James Peak (Pike’s Peak) in the Rain (1820). Pen, black ink and watercolor on laid paper. Courtesy Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

Fig. 4.3. Public bathing and scant attire of Indian and Mexican women fueled the popular fantasy of young, beautiful, and naked girls awaiting Anglo-American men. Alfred Jacob Miller, Indian Girls, Swinging (1858-1860). Watercolor heightened with white on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 4.4. Art historian Lisa Strong identifies the bawdy reference to oral sex in this scene between a native woman and a trapper. Alfred Jacob Miller, Giving a Drink to a Thirsty Trapper (1837-1838). Watercolor. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Fig. 4.5. The rescue of “dark-eyed señoritas” from unworthy men represented a popular, metaphorical justification for the conquest of Mexico. Samuel Chamberlain, Beauty and the Beast (n.d.). Watercolor. Courtesy of the San Jacinto Museum of History, La Porte, TX.

Fig. 4.6. Many adventurers esteemed the impressive physiques of Native American men, describing them as virtual giants of the elsewhere. George Catlin, Tál-lee, a Warrior of Distinction (1834). Oil. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Figs 4.7. The masculine beauty rendered with “almond-shaped eyes” and cherub faces masked the ferocity of Alfred Jacob Miller's native hunters and warriors. Chinook Indian: Columbia River (1858-1860). Watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. See also fig. 4.8.

Fig. 4.8. Alfred Jacob Miller, Si-roc-u-an-tua (1858-1860). Watercolor heightened with white on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. See also fig. 4.7.

Fig. 4.9. For some who met the ranger captain, Samuel H. Walker’s delicate features contrasted with his reputation as a fierce, rugged adventurer. Matthew Brady [?], Captain Samuel H. Walker (ca. 1846). Half plate daguerreotype. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Fig. 5.1. The expedition functioned as a community of adventurers and provided the stage for their masculine performances. Archibald Dick after Eugene Didier, Arrival of the Caravan at Santa Fe (ca. 1844). Engraving. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Links to New Mexico Digital Collections.

Fig. 5.2. Adventurers often honed their storytelling skills around the camp fire. Alfred Jacob Miller, Camp Fire, Preparing the Evening Meal (1858-1860). Watercolor heightened with white on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 5.3. The Mier Expedition—formed by men who refused to follow orders and disband—illustrated the crisis of leadership evident in many adventurous organizations where every man was his own captain. Hillyard and Prudhomme after Charles McLoughlin, Mier Expedition Descending the Rio Grande (ca. 1845). Courtesy of the Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin.

Fig. 6.1. In the 1830s, peoples of different ethnicities and nationalities converged upon this trading post at the junction of the Laramie and North Platte rivers deep within the American elsewhere. Alfred Jacob Miller, Interior of Fort Laramie (1858-1860). Watercolor, heightened with white, on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 6.2. A son of a French-Canadian father and a native mother, Antoine Clemente’s skills and his comradeship challenged the ethnocentric definitions of the exceptional frontiersman. Alfred Jacob Miller, Portrait of Antoine (ca. 1840). Oil on Canvas. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. 6.3. Despite the dreams of martial renown, patriot warriors often achieved empty deaths. Hillyard and Gumbrede after Charles McLoughlin, Frontispiece, Thomas J. Green, Journal of the Texian Expedition against Mier (1845). Courtesy of the Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin.

Fig. 6.4. The trading post, often depicted with a conspicuous American flag, reflected both the remoteness of adventurous enterprise and its role in the nation’s expansionist mission. Alfred Jacob Miller, Fort Laramie (1858-1860). Watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Fig. E.1. With the nation spiraling deeper into the sectional crisis between the North and the South, John C. Frémont’s 1856 run for president, in part, reopened the challenges to the western adventurer as American hero. Baker & Godwin, Col. Fremont planting the American standard on the Rocky Mountains (1856). Wood engraving with letterpress. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.