The Scalp Dance
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
1985.66.386,595B
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *The Scalp Dance* a vivid moment from Native American life, likely inspired by the artist's immersive travels among Plains tribes in the 183s. As a pioneering ethnographer and painter, Catlin documented and customs he feared would vanish due to encroaching American expansion. This graphic arts print depicts a group of figures—probably women—in a ceremonial dance celebrating victory, brandishing scalps as trophies a practice rooted in intertribal warfare. Rendered as a print, the work translates Catlin's on-site sketches into accessible reproductions, allowing wider audiences t...
About the Artist
George Catlin · 1796–1872
George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...