McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - MAR-KO-ME-TE, A MENOMENE BRAVE, from History of the Indian Tribes of North - ca. 1838 - T-Shirt

This hand-colored lithograph is a portrait of Mar-Ko-Me-Te, a brave of the Menominee nation, drawn from the 1830s publication History of the Indian Tribes of North America.

Visual Elements & Composition

The image is built around a single figure, presented as a formal portrait with the sitter's likeness as the focus. It is a hand-colored lithograph on paper, so its tones are applied by hand over the printed line work, giving the portrait its warm, documentary character. Nothing competes with the face and the individual presence of the man depicted.

Meaning & Symbolism

The portrait belongs to a project that set out to record the prominent indigenous leaders and cultural figures met by government officials in the early nineteenth century. Thomas McKenney and James Hall commissioned the work, drawing on original portraits from the Indian Gallery in Washington, D.C., many of which were later destroyed in a fire. The Menominee were living through a period of forced territorial concession, and the portrait stands as a record of that moment. It also shows the tension at the heart of the project: an image of a named individual, made within a system that catalogued Native identity as part of American westward expansion.

Crafted for the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A portrait like this rewards close looking, and a tee keeps the figure at chest height, where the face is seen at a natural distance and the printed detail can be read as it would be on a page. The design carries its own history onto the shirt, so wearing it means carrying a primary source from 1830s American publishing into everyday use.