Three Seminole Chiefs

In the early part of the nineteenth century, Thomas McKenney, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1824-1830), commissioned artist Charles Bird King to paint portraits of important tribal visitors who came to Washington to sign treaties. These portraits were hung in the War Department and later moved to the Smithsonian. Wanting to preserve the images and create a lasting record, McKenney invited James Hall to write biographies to include in serialized pamphlets, published over more than a decade, which were some of the finest examples of lithographic printing in their day. On January 24, 1865, most of the original paintings burned in a fire at the Smithsonian. A few were saved, but what remained of this heroic project were the images as captured by the lithographs published in the beautiful pamphlets.