The Illustrated Indian: Cultural Contradictions in the Indians of the Pictorial Press

1. The Illustrated Indian:Cultural Contradictions in theIndians ofthe Pictorial Press John Coward Faculty of Communication The University of Tulsa

2. Knowing & Seeing • Before printing, books were hand-copied, which made them rare and expensive • Before photography, images were hand-drawn or printed by hand, but popular imagery was relatively rare and expensive

3. The Birth of the Visual • In 1800, most Americans had no idea what politicians or other famous people looked like • This changed when the daguerreotype and other photographic technologies arrived in the 1830s & 1840s and started a visual revolution

4. The Penny Press • The mass media “invented” in the 1830s with the development of the Penny Press in New York City • These one-cent newspapers catered to middle- and working-class readers with police and crime news, scandals, and sensationalism

5. The Appetite for News • The Penny Press was the popular press; circulation soared in NYC and elsewhere • Editors began activelyseeking news and employed reporters to find it • Reporters began competing for news • Faster presses were developed to meet the demands of publishers

6. NP circulations rise • Benjamin Day’s NY Sun reached 10,000 circulation little more than two years • James Gordon Bennett started the NY Herald for $500 in 1835 and reached a circulation of 20,000 in1836 • By 1860, the Herald’s circulation was 60,000

7. Presses at the St. LouisRepublic • 1806: Screw press ran 35 copies per hour (both sides) • 1827: Washington press ran 150 copies per hour • 1853: Double cylinder Hoe press ran 1,200 copies per hour • 1863: Eight cylinder Hoe press ran 10,000 copies per hour

8. The Visual Revolution • In the 1840s, daguerreotypes amazed the public because they “captured reality” • Editors wanted images to help tell stories and sell newspapers and magazines • The problem: No technology existed to publish photographs in the newspapers until the 1890s

9. The Visual Revolution, Pt 2 • The solution: Employ artists • Newspapers hired illustrators and engravers to copy photographs or make drawings in order to illustrate newsworthy people and events • Enterprising editors developed a new product: the pictorial paper, combining the popular appeal of the Penny Press and the visual impact of the image

10. Rise of the Pictorial Press • First American pictorial paper: Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, founded in Boston in 1852 • First successful American pictorial paper: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, founded in New York in 1855 • Harper’s Weekly followed in 1857

11. Images and the Civil War • The war was good for business • The demand for images was high • Leslie’s circulation climbed to 160,000 during the war; Harper’s climbed to 120,000 • The pictorial press created a new editorial position: the “special artist” who drew images from the battlefield

12. The Illustrated Indian • After the Civil War, the pictorial press sent artists west in search of excitement and action • Theodore Davis and Alfred Waud, both Civil War artists, covered Indians and the West

13. The Illustrated Indian, Pt 2 • In the post-Civil War era and Gilded Age, the illustrated press was the major source of popular Indian imagery • Indian imagery varied, but war images dominated the popular imagination • Battles scenes were newsworthy and exciting

14. The Illustrated Indian, Pt. 3 • Significantly, scenes of Indian warriors and Indian fighting supported and sustained a national ideology about the correctness of conquest and expansion • Indian war imagery cast Indians as obstacles to western expansion and enemies of civilization and progress

15. A Contradiction • Indian war illustrations made sense as long as the fighting continued • The illustrations made less “news sense” as the Indian wars ended • Despite new ways of representing Indians, war imagery persisted and remained enormously popular

16. The Myth Lives On (And On) • Manifest Destiny was (and is) a powerful part of our national myth • The myth depends on a deficient but worthy enemy • In the post-war pictorial press, Indians were most popular as colorful but deadly adversaries, even when the illustrations were made up

17. Pictorial PressExamples • Theodore Davis travels west in 1865 • His stage attacked by Indians in Kansas • Davis writes four stories about the attack and illustrates it twice, making it one of the most well-documented incidents of its kind • The stage attack becomes a visual cliché

18. Pictorial Press Examples • Henry Farny goes west in 1881 • He took photos to improve his accuracy • His illustrations and paintings mostly non-violent, pastoral Indian scenes • Farny acclaimed in his lifetime, but largely forgotten or overlooked today

19. Pictorial Press Examples • Frederic Remington covers the Geronimo campaign for Harper’s in 1886 • He saw no action but took photos, depicting Indians and other Western “types” • Following Social Darwinism, Remington creates detailed images of racially distinct Indian faces

20. Pictorial Press Examples • Remington’s greatest success as an illustrator comes not from realistic images but from his imaginary drawings of Indian battles • In 1889, he published “The Last Lull in the Fight,” a “last stand” scene, one of several such imaginary drawings & another visual cliché • In 1890, he painted “The Last Stand,” a battle that took place when he was 15

21. Fact vs. Romance • Despite the rise of photography and the “realist turn” in the Gilded Age, romantic notions of Indian conquest trumped realistic depictions of Indians and Indian fighting • Americans wanted—and the pictorial press delivered—the sizzle, not the steak