Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935

By Jane Catherine Berlo

The Plains Indians of North America have a long tradition of chronicling their lives pictorially, but in the mid-19th century, as a result of increased contact with soldiers and settlers moving west, they acquired a new medium for their visual histories. Using pen, pencil and watercolour, they began to draw in the bound ledgers commonly used for inventory by traders and military officers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810937425
• ISBN13: 9780810937420
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 4.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.4" x 1.0" x 10.5"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Natuve American Ledger Art

As an artist interested in Native American Ledger Art, I have look through many of the books available on the subject. This book has the best collection of different tribes and artists. I am not aware of another book that could serve as well as a resource for the art and a history of ledger art.

A Superb Reference Work

This really is a "must-have" book for anyone interested in the details of what Plains Indians wore. It contains hundreds of wonderful full colour plates of Ledger Drawings by Plains Indians of Plains Indians. The production values of the book are also very high indeed, so that it is not only a marvellous reference work, it is also beautiful to look at and to hold. The standard of scholarship of the accompanying text is also excellent. As an author and artist, I found it truly inspirational. The only possible criticism is that more of the Ledger Drawings themselves were not reproduced, because the references to them are tantalising.