Lewis, James O.

[The Aboriginal Port Folio; or a Collection of Portraits of the Most Celebrated Chiefs of the North American Indians. Philadelphia: published by the author, May 1835–February 1836]



Folio (17 3/4 x 10 1/2 in.; 453 x 267 mm). 72 handcolored lithographed plates (of 80, see below) after Lewis by Lehman & Duval, 6 additional duplicate plates, advertisement leaves for first 3 parts (all published); lacking title-page, advertisement leaves a little soiled, the first of them a bit creased, some browning, soiling, and spotting to plates, about 12 plates with marginal tears or closed tears (only those to Billy Shane, Mo-wan-za, and Na-she-mung-ga into the image), Dance plate laid down with numerous chips and tears. Nineteenth-century half purple morocco, floral endpapers, red edges; extremities scuffed.

William W. Fox (inscription on front flyleaf, New York, 1835) — Lyman Tiffany (inscription on front flyleaf, Washington, also noting "Rebound by Gibson May 6th 1887")

Bennett, p. 68; Clements, One Hundred Michigan Rarities 63; Field, Indian Bibliography 936; Reese, American Color Plate Books 23; Reese, James Otto Lewis and His Aboriginal Port Folio (2008); Wainwright, Philadelphia ... Lithography, pp. 30–33

Folio (17 3/4 x 10 1/2 in.; 453 x 267 mm). 72 handcolored lithographed plates (of 80, see below) after Lewis by Lehman & Duval, 6 additional duplicate plates, advertisement leaves for first 3 parts (all published); lacking title-page, advertisement leaves a little soiled, the first of them a bit creased, some browning, soiling, and spotting to plates, about 12 plates with marginal tears or closed tears (only those to Billy Shane, Mo-wan-za, and Na-she-mung-ga into the image), Dance plate laid down with numerous chips and tears. Nineteenth-century half purple morocco, floral endpapers, red edges; extremities scuffed.
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First edition of the first and rarest colorplate book on North American Indians. James O. Lewis was born in Philadelphia in 1799, but migrated West and by 1820 he was employed as a painter and engraver in St. Louis. In 1823 he moved to Detroit, where his first Indian portraits were painted at the request of Governor Lewis Cass. From 1825 to 1827, Lewis accompanied Cass to treaty conventions at Prairie du Chien, Fort Wayne, Fond du Lac, and Green Bay, finding sitters for portraits—including Potawatomi, Winnebago, Shawnee, Sioux, Miami, Fox, Iowa—on all four occasions. Some of Lewis's originals were copied by Charles Bird King and later used in McKenney and Hall's rival publication.

Lewis's Port Folio was published in Philadelphia by the lithographers George Lehman and Peter S. Duval. The work was issued in parts, and ten parts, each with eight plates, were issued. The interest of subscribers dwindled, however, with the advancing publication of McKenney and Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, and the last two parts were issued in very small numbers. "The most usual format surviving is sixty-four plates, suggesting that Lewis held on to his subscribers fairly well for eight parts through December 1835. Much scarcer, but still to be found in some numbers, are seventy-two plates of nine parts. Almost impossible to find are eighty-plate complete sets" (Reese, Lewis, p. 25). The present finely colored copy has the 72 plates from the first nine parts, as well as six duplicate plates from part 8 (Chippeway Squaws, Mish-sha-quat, Kee-me-one, O-hya-wa-nim-ce-kee, Ke-wa-din, and Ta-ma-kake-toke).

The Aboriginal Port Folio is a fascinating and idiosyncratic blend of folk art and ethnography. Lewis recognized his own shortcomings as an artist in the publisher's advertisement for the work, and Brain Dippie has amusingly, if accurately, described the faces of some of his subjects as "anticipating Picasso without the intention" (Catlin and his Contemporaires, p. 87).