American Art Collaborative

George Catlin described this work as “the portrait of a Chippeway woman . . . with her child in its crib or cradle . . . [the umbilicus] hanging before the child's face for its supernatural protector . . . This woman's dress was mostly made of civilized manufactures, but curiously decorated and ornamented according to Indian taste.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 51, 1841; reprint 1973