Book of drawings by an anonymous Kiowa artist
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 392725

USNM Accession 203386

OPPS NEG MNH 1269-K
name: label: Collector
content: Hubbell, Henry Wilson, 1842-1917
place: label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Collector
content: Hubbell, Henry Wilson, 1842-1917
culture: label: Culture
content: Kiowa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Book of drawings by an anonymous Kiowa artist
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Brigadier General Henry W. Hubbell (1842-1917) was stationed at St. Augustine, Florida from October 26, 1873 to December 2, 1875. He was subsequently stationed at Ft. Sill, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) from August 16, 1875 to August 18, 1876. While at Ft. Marion, Hubbell served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Artillery.
label: Historical Note
content: Fort Marion, also known as Castillo de San Marco, is a stone fortress in St. Augustine, Florida. Between 1875 and 1878, seventy-two prisoners from the southern plains were incarcerated in the fort. Captain Richard Pratt supervised the prisoners during their incarceration at Fort Marion. The prisoners consisted of 27 Kiowas, 33 Cheyennes, 9 Comanches, 2 Arapahos, and a single Caddo. With the exception of one Cheyenne woman, all the prisoners were men. They had been accused of participating in the recent Red River War, earlier hostilities, or both. With the exception of the wife and daughter of one of the Comanche men, the prisoners' families were not allowed to accompany them to Fort Marion.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Volume (disbound; 11 drawings, graphite, colored pencil, and crayon, 8.5 x 7 inches)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1875
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Evidence suggests that Hubbell acquired this set of drawings from a Kiowa prisoner at Ft. Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. A second book of drawings collected by General Hubbell was offered for sale by George Terasaki in the 1990s. It contains an inscription describing the incarceration of the southern plains prisoners at Ft. Marion and indicating that the images were drawn by one of the prisoners. This establishes that Hubbell visited Ft. Marion and obtained a set of drawings from one of the prisoners. Thus it seems likely that the collection of drawings at the NAA were also obtained at Ft. Marion, although they were not created by the same artist. However, a comparison of drawing of a train in MA 392725 and a drawing of a train in a book in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian (Collection #20-6236) suggest that these drawings were created by the same artist. As the latter set of drawings was collected at Ft. Marion, the results of this comparison seem to indicate that MS 392725 was also created there.

The drawings were donated to the Smithsonian Institution by General Hubbell's daughter Edith S. Hubbell of Warrenton, Virginia on October 5, 1954 (USNM accession number 203386).  The drawings were transferred from the object collections of the Department of Anthropology to the National Anthropological Archives in 1969.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS392725
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Volumes
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Ledger drawings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Ledger drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of a commercial notebook of ruled paper, now disbound, containing eleven (11) drawings by an unidentified Kiowa artist. Several of the drawings span two leaves.  The drawings depict rituals associated with the sun dance; warfare; dancers; men seated in painted tipis; mounted warriors; and a train.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.