George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA - Hunting Buffalo on Snow-no. 15 - unknown - T-Shirt

This sepia lithograph shows two Native American hunters on snowshoes pursuing a bison herd across a winter landscape.

Visual Elements & Composition

The scene sits inside a rectangular vignette, with a wide horizontal landscape of rolling snowy hills and snow-covered pines behind the action. The palette is built from warm sepia, cream, and pale tan, with charcoal brown and grey-brown defining the hunters and animals. One hunter, on snowshoes, is spearing or shooting a bison, while a second hunter follows the herd close behind. The printed caption reads "HUNTING BUFFALO ON SNOW-SHOES." and "CATLIN'S NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN COLLECTION, No. 13."

Meaning & Symbolism

George Catlin, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, spent his career recording the faces, customs, and environments of Indigenous nations he believed were vanishing under Western expansion. This piece documents the winter hunting methods used to track and secure bison, showing the physical effort and coordinated movement required across snow. The bison supplied food, clothing, and materials, so the hunt carries the deep connection between Indigenous peoples and the animal at the heart of life on the Great Plains. It is a record of nineteenth-century survival and social organization, drawn from Catlin's Indian Gallery.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

The composition is wide and horizontal, so the hunters and herd stretch across the chest where the eye can follow the chase from one figure to the next. The sepia tones read as a single warm field against the tee, and the caption sits as a small, documentary detail for anyone looking closely. Wearing it puts a historical field record of the hunt in plain view.