Exhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, Philadelphia

Exhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, Philadelphia

John Lewis Krimmel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In watercolor produced for Pavel Petrovich Svinin’s "A Picturesque Voyage in North America" (1815), Krimmel illustrated Svinin’s account of an American Indian dance ceremony at an 1812 tribal delegation meeting in Philadelphia. Scholars have not, however, been able to document the occurrence of such a meeting. Svinin may have invented this narrative by combining details from two 1804 performances: one staged by an Osage delegation for Thomas Jefferson during a visit to Washington, D.C., and another a few weeks later by the same tribal representatives at New York City’s Vauxhall Gardens. Krimmel, like Svinin, had never witnessed such an event in person. Working with the sources he had at hand, he derived the figures in his council scene from works by Benjamin West and from anatomical studies he had done as a student in Philadelphia.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, PhiladelphiaExhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, PhiladelphiaExhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, PhiladelphiaExhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, PhiladelphiaExhibition of Indian Tribal Ceremonies at the Olympic Theater, Philadelphia

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.