Ledger Narratives, 6: The Plains Indian Drawings in the Mark Lansburgh Collection at Dartmouth College

The largest known collection of ledger art ever acquired by one individual is Mark Lansburgh's diverse assemblage of more than 140 drawings, now held by the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and catalogued in this important book. The Cheyennes, Crows, Kiowas, Lakotas, and other Plains peoples created the genre known as ledger art in the mid-nineteenth century. Before that time, these Indians had chronicled the heroic achievements of their warriors and chiefs on rock, buffalo robes, and tipi covers. As they came into increasing contact with American traders, the artists recorded their experiences in pencil and crayon drawings on paper bound in ledger or account books. The drawings became known as ledger art.
This volume presents in full color the Lansburgh collection in its entirety. The drawings are narratives depicting Plains lifeways through Plains eyes. They include landscapes and scenes of battle, hunting, courting, ceremony, incarceration, and travel by foot, horse, train, and boat. Ledger art also served to prompt memories of horse raids and heroic exploits in battle.
In addition to showcasing the Lansburgh collection, Ledger Narratives augments the growing literature on this art form by providing seven new essays that suggest some of the many stories the drawings contain and that look at them from innovative perspectives. The authors--scholars of art history, anthropology, history, and Native American studies--touch on such themes as gender, social status, sovereignty, tribal and intertribal politics, economic exchange, and confinement and space in a changing world.

The Lansburgh collection includes some of the most arresting examples of Plains Indian art, and the essays in this volume help us see and hear the multiple narratives these drawings relate.


Author: Colin G. Calloway
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 11/20/2012
Series: New Directions in Native American Studies #08
Pages: 292
Weight: 3.5lbs
Size: 11.20h x 8.90w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780806142982


Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2013

About the Author
Calloway, Colin G.: -

Colin G. Calloway is the John Kimball, Jr., 1943 Professor of History and Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including the award-winning One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark and New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America.

Szabo, Joyce M.: -

Joyce M. Szabo is Professor of Art History at the University of New Mexico and author of Howling Wolf and the History of Ledger Art.