page_title: John White (colonist and artist)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: John White (colonist and artist) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Dancing Secotan Indians in North Carolina. Watercolour painted by John White in 1585. Deutsch: Tanz der Secotan-Indianer in North Carolina. Aquarell von John White aus dem Jahr 1585.
context_page_description: John White was an English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer. White was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville in the first attempt to colonize Roanoke Island in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. He would most famously briefly serve as the governor of the second attempt to found Roanoke Colony on the same island in 1587 and discover the colonists had mysteriously vanished.
  During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard; the surviving original watercolors are now preserved in the print room of the British Museum.
  In 1587, White became governor of Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempt at a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island, known to history as the "Lost Colony". This was the earliest effort to establish a permanent English colony in the New World. White's granddaughter Virginia Dare was the first English child born in the Americas.
context_section_description: In the late sixteenth century efforts to establish an English colony in the New World began to gain momentum, and White soon became an enthusiastic supporter. In 1577, White may have accompanied Martin Frobisher to search for precious metals and a northwest passage to Asia on his Baffin Island and Greenland expeditions in 1577. Despite this, White was not mentioned by name. His drawings from this period were of the lands and people encountered on the voyage. In 1585, White accompanied the expedition led by Sir Ralph Lane to attempt to found the first English colony in North America. White was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh as Sir Richard Grenville's artist-illustrator on his first voyage to the New World; he served as mapmaker and artist to the expedition, which encountered considerable difficulties and returned to England in 1586 .
caption: Watercolour by John White of Roanoke Indians
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