In 1851 Frank Blackwell Mayer, a talented young artist from Baltimore,
traveled to Minnesota Territory to attend the signing of the Treaty of
Traverse des Sioux between the Dakota Indians and the United States
government. "He went," notes Bertha Heilbron in the introduction, "not
to participate in the negotiations, but to observe Indian life at first
hand and to find subjects for his brush and pencil... With a sure stroke
he pictured the scenes and the inhabitants--red and white--of the
frontier; with a fluent pen he described all that he saw through the
sensitive eye of the artist."
Mayer's diary is a travel narrative, an eyewitness account of a critical
treaty signing, and a candid personal view of the development of the
artist in mid-nineteenth century America. His words and drawings offer a
lively and important resource for historians of art and the frontier, as
well as readers of regional history.
This edition includes an additional section of Mayer's diary that was
discovered after the book was first published in 1932. Bertha Heilbron's
helpful introductions and annotation provide important historical
information for both parts oif this valuable document.