Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-07-29
OLD PICTURE OF
FORT ARMSTRONG
BEING DISPLAYED

What is no doubt the finest auth
entic picture ever painted Of old
Fort Armstrong is on exhibition in
the show window Of McCabe & Co.'s
store.
The original painting was by the
famous artist, George Cat1in Of
Philadelphia, who from the years
1929 to 1888 Travelled over the west
ern country, visiting 48 tribes Of
Indians; painting the portraits Of
their leading warriors and chiefs,
and recording upon canvas various
historic scenes and places OF ma
turaI beauty.
What is believed to have been
Catlin's last visit to Rock Island,
was in September, 1886 on the oe-
casion of the treaty with the sac
& Fox nation, held at Fort Arm
strong, at which time the Indians
ceded to the. United States tract
of 256, 900 acres in Iowa, and it is
likely that 1t was at this time that
he painted the picture of the Fort.
Mention is made in catalogue Of
the "CatIin's Indian Collection" Of
Rock Island, United States Garri-
son, Upper Mississippi" and with
it, the number of the picture. A
representative of the Rock Island
County Historical society in view
ing-the collection of the national
museum at Washington, failed to
find this picture on the walls, and
applied to the curator for informa-
ton concerning it. AS no one knew
Just where to find it, one of the lead
IN he a.
scum, together with a darby janitor
and the Rock Island man commenc-
ed a search through storage rooms
containing scores and scores Of
dust and SCOT covered paintings. It
was suggested that this picture
must have gone up in smoke some
years ago when a fire destroyed
many valuable Indian pictures, but
when near the bottom of the last
pile, to the great joy of the search
ers, they found what they were
looking for, but it was in q pad
state of preservation. the sky es-
pecially having run" and the oils
over the entire picture being crack
ed and chapped.
An expert photographer was Sc
cured who made an Sx10 negative
of the painting, and a contact print
from this negative was taken to the
Augustana college and theoTog1caI
seminary where Professor o. Graf
strom undertook to reproduce-it in
oil. Professor Grafstrom gave the
strictest attention. down to the min
utest detail, working with the aid Of
a magnifying glass, in order that
nothing of historical value should
be lost His finished picture, 24x36
inches in size is much larger than
the original, which measures I5x
221z inches, and is believed to be of
finer execution than the original,
for with all due respect to the work
of the artist Catlin, the great vol
ume of his work was done with a
view to recording the details and
preserving the historic i'm numerous
pictures rather than giving time to
the aesthetic qualities of his art
and thereby cutting down the num-
Der Of his finished product.
The Photographic print from
which Professor Grafstrom worked
is exhibited together with his fin
ished painting. It shows the east
side of the fort, two blockhouses,
connected by what appears to be a
stone wall which is nearly as high
as the smaller of the blockhouses,
the inland blockhouse being larger
than the one next the Mississippi
on to the south is the residence
building occupied by General Win
field Scott at the time of the Black
Hawk war, and a couple of fences
in the foreground suggest that cat
tie and horses must have been pas
tured in the adjoining open ground.