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Feeding The Dead

A hand-colored print, titled “Feeding the Dead,” showing two people near a river and mountains. The people stand near a coffin on a high platform supported by wood. One person holds a bowl of vegetables toward the coffin. Two other platforms with coffins are visible in the background./tiles/collection/4/4231.xml
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A hand-colored print, titled “Feeding the Dead,” showing two people near a river and mountains. The people stand near a coffin on a high platform supported by wood. One person holds a bowl of vegetables toward the coffin. Two other platforms with coffins are visible in the background.
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Date

ca. 1850

Artist

Seth Eastman

Dimensions

8 3/4 × 11 7/8 in. (22.2 × 30.2 cm) Framed: 16 3/8 × 17 3/4 in. (41.6 × 45.1 cm)

Accession Number

2004.087.014

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

Before the artist painted the subject for the House Committee on Indian Affairs, it appeared as a book illustration. Seth Eastman based the image on sketches he made of Dakota Indians living near Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where he was stationed in the 1840s. Here, the funeral custom that required bodies to remain on high scaffolds for an extended mourning period is shown amidst a sweeping landscape.

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Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov