Esh-ta-hum-heah or Sleepy Eyes
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: OPPS NEG.3495 A
label: Local Note
content: See McKenney and Hall. (Negative marked / "Copy from War College."
label: Local Note
content: Black and white copy negative
name: label: Creator
content: McKenney, Thomas L. & Hall, James
topic: label: Topic
content: Language and languages -- Documentation
label: Topic
content: Sioux
creator: label: Creator
content: McKenney, Thomas L. & Hall, James
culture: label: Culture
content: Sisitonwan Dakota (Sisseton Sioux)
label: Culture
content: Indians of North America -- Great Plains
setName: label: See more items in
content: Bureau of American Ethnology negatives
label: See more items in
content: Bureau of American Ethnology negatives / Additional Materials / McKenney and Hall
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Photograph (8x10 in)
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Grabs, Mrs Elsie 39772 Orchard St. Cherry Valley, Calif. Rec'd. July 24, 1961. July 26, 1961. According to Thomas Donaldson ("The George Catlin Indian Gallery in the U. S. National Museum...," the Indian portraits collected in the beginning of the 19th century by the Indian Office (the predecessor of the Bureau of Indian Affairs), were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution until, on January 24, 1865, "the principal part of the contents of the rooms in the upper story and towers of the Smithsonian Institution were destroyed by fire. Mr King's collection of Indian portraits, the property of the government, were totally destroyed." (Donaldson, page 796.) The portraits of both Eesh-tah-hum-leah and Waa-na-taa are listed among the other paintings "arranged on the east and south-east walls of the Picture Gallery"of the Smithsonian in William J. Rhee's "Catalogue of Indian Paintings belonging to the Government Collection," from An Account of the Smithsonian Institution..., Washington, 1859, pages 55-58 (reprinted in McKenney and Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America, ed. by Frederick Webb Hodge, Edinburgh, 1833, Volume 1, pages xlvi-liii.) Presumably, these two portraits hung in the gallery from 1849 until January, 1865.

Although King's original oil paintings of Eesh-ta-hum-leah and Waa-na-ta were lost in the fire, lithographs had been made from the portraits and published by McKenney and Hall. Color reproductions of them may be seen in Volume 1, the 1933 edition of McKenney and Hall cited above. Copies of the original folio edition of McKenney and Hall exist in several libraries in the United States, including the Library of the Bureau of American Ethnology. If you wish, we can have an 8" x 10" black and white negative made of each of these portraits, from the original lithographs. The negatives will remain in the files of the Smithsonian. If you wish to have this copying done, it will be necessary to allow at least six weeks for the completion of the work.