Histories of the American West at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Visual culture plays an important role in the Clark Library collection on the American West. The Clark Library holds a significant number of lithographs, photographs, and art objects.

George Catlin (1796–1872) spent decades producing paintings of Indigenous life and culture in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, and the Clark Library collection holds tinted lithographs and illustrated books by and related to the artist. Catlin perceived himself as a key witness to the American genocide of Indigenous communities. Catlin’s work was extremely popular; his books were often reprinted and translated into other languages for international audiences enamored of a sensationalized vision of the American West. 

Collection materials include: 

• Catlin’s North American Indian portfolio (1844): A collection of Catlin drawings and notes published in London. 

• Illustrations of the manners, customs, and condition of North American Indians (1857): A compendium of illustrations, letters, and notes produced by Catlin over eight years of travel between the Blackfoot, Crow, Ojibwe, Cree, and Sioux tribes. The first edition was published in 1841. 

• La vie chez Indiens (1863): A description of Catlin’s experiences with the Sioux and Comanche tribes, as well as racist generalizations of Indigenous life written by Catlin and translated into the French by F. de Lanoye. It was published in Paris.

John Clifford Cowles (1861–1951) was an artist and writer who studied in New York City with German-American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902). Cowles photographed and painted the American West during the 1880s and 1890s and lived in Los Angeles from the 1890s until his death. He claimed that William Andrews Clark, Sr. was his patron at the end of the 19th century, but this has yet to be verified. 

The collection includes a scrapbook and loose photographs from Cowles’ estate. It was compiled by Mary L. Bennett, who purchased the materials after his death.

To find pamphlets, printed books, maps, pictorial works, and manuscripts go to UC Library Search. Click on “Advanced Search,” select the “Author” field, and type “Catlin, George, 1796–1872.” You can also do a keyword search either in the simple search or in the “Any field” field of the “Advanced Search.” Once you have search results, you can limit to the Clark Library by selecting it from the “UCLA Locations” facet.