2 volumes. viii, 264; viii, 266 pp.; errata slip. Illustrated with 309 engravings on 177 plates from the original paintings by Catlin, plus 3 engraved maps (1 folding). 9½x6, modern half morocco & marbled boards, spines ruled in gilt, leather spine labels. First Edition.

Important study of the American Indians by artist and anthropologist George Catlin who visited 48 Indian tribes on his tour of the West and executed some 600 paintings. Letters and Notes includes hundreds of engravings which were reduced from the original paintings under Catlin's supervision. The text and illustrations portray all aspects of Indian life including life in their villages, games, dances, funerals, sudatories, religious ceremonies, buffalo hunting, etc., plus detailed descriptions and depictions of native dress and physiognomy. Catlin traveled through the West in the 1830's, painting portraits of Indians and recording their habitats, weapons, rituals, ceremonies, etc., creating during that decade an "Indian Gallery" of great renown. After taking the entire gallery to England, Catlin published his "Letters & Notes," using text from a series of articles he had written for the New York Commercial Advertiser from 1832 to 1837, and illustrating it with line-cut reductions of his original paintings. Howes C241; Wagner-Camp 84:4.