The Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures presents
A Moment In Time:
Exploration Artists and Early Ethnology
George Catlin, "The Ball Players, Choctaw and
Sioux," hand-colored lithograph; from the Schingoethe Collection,
Aurora University
Featuring rare books and prints from the collections of the Schingoethe
Center for Native American Cultures at Aurora University
November 6, 2006 - March 15, 2007
Opening Reception: Monday, November 6, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
When Thomas Jefferson authorized the Louisiana Purchase
in 1803, thereby doubling the landmass of the United States, he said
it would provide land for yeoman farmers to the "thousandth generation."
Not even a generation later, in the early 1830s, Americans were pushing
these boundaries. With the speed of progress, Native Americans were
seen as a vanishing race that would be forever lost or changed. Many
artists and scientists felt an urgency to record as much as possible
about our vast land and its original people, before inevitable and irrevocable
changes occurred.
During the 19th century as the United States tried to find a solution
to the "Indian problem," the study of the indigenous peoples
of North America played a key role in the government's policies. To
the early science of ethnology, Europeans brought their ethnocentric
perspective. Theories abounded: of origin and intelligence, phrenology,
polygenesis, monogenesis, degeneration. Perhaps these were the lost
tribes of Israel.
This exhibit brings together the work of the early "exploration
artists," who provided the world with the only (usually) accurate
images of Native Americans in an era before photography. Rare prints
by George Catlin and book illustrations by Catlin, Charles Bird King,
and Seth Eastman give us a window into this early period. Likewise,
government agents and scholars began systematic study of Indian tribes,
describing social customs, lifeways, rituals, beliefs, stories and myths,
and many other aspects of Native American life. Beginning in the 1870s,
the federal government formalized much of this study in such bureaucracies
as the Bureau of Ethnology in the Smithsonian.
George Catlin, painting from life
Exhibit Hours:
Tuesdays: 10:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Wed. - Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sundays: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
The exhibit is housed in the Education Gallery of the Schingoethe
Center for Native American Cultures, lower level of Dunham Hall, Aurora
University, Aurora, Illinois. We are located at 1400 Marseillaise Place,
on the north side of campus, at the intersection of Randall Road and Marseillaise.
Free and open to the public; we do, however, request donations to the
museum at the door. Some works in this exhibit are offered for sale; information
is available at the museum reception desk. For further information and
driving directions, call 630-844-5402. You may
also click here for driving directions and location information.
Illustration from Bureau of Ethnology, Third Annual
Report, 1882. Hand-engraved print from photograph.
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