McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - CHIPPEWAY WOMAN & CHILD, from History of the Indian Tribes of North America - ca. 1838 - T-Shirt

This plate shows an Ojibwe woman and her child, rendered as a formal portrait for History of the Indian Tribes of North America.

Visual Elements & Composition

The image is a hand-colored lithograph, so its tones come from printed line work that was touched with colour by hand. The two figures are the clear focus, the mother and child placed close together so that the pair reads as one family group. The design is built around these figures rather than around ornament, and the title line beneath carries the names of the nation, the subjects and the source.

Meaning & Symbolism

Thomas McKenney, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, gathered the portraits for the project. The originals were oil paintings made primarily by Charles Bird King in Washington, D.C., and the plates were adapted from them for publication. Images like this one preserved the likenesses and dignity of Native leaders and community members who travelled to Washington for treaty negotiations. Including women and children widened the record beyond political figures to family and daily life, during a period of profound change for the Ojibwe and other nations. The plate sits where early American portraiture, ethnography and government documentation meet.

Made for the Wearer

A tee is worn close to the body and seen at conversation distance, so a portrait this detailed sits best centred on the chest, where the eye lands first. Because the design is a single plate rather than a repeating pattern, the mother and child stay together as one image. Wearing it means carrying a specific family from 1838 into everyday life, not a generic motif.