McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - PADDY-CARR. CREEK INTERPRETER., from History of the Indian Tribes of North - ca. 1838 - T-Shirt

This design reproduces a hand-colored lithographic portrait of Paddy-Carr, a Creek interpreter, from Thomas McKenney and James Hall's 1838 publication on Indigenous leaders.

Visual Elements & Composition

A cream sheet dominates the image, with a seated man shown in half-length view against a plain ground. He wears a coral-red jacket trimmed in sky blue, and his skin tones are warm and softly modeled. A stone ledge runs across the lower edge, anchoring the figure. The name PADDY CARR. and the title CREEK INTERPRETER. appear as printed captions, with the publisher's line and the 1836 copyright entry beneath, all set in the plain lettering of the period.

Meaning & Symbolism

Paddy-Carr worked between the Creek Nation and the United States government, translating and negotiating at a time when treaties, land cessions, and Indian Removal were reshaping southeastern homelands. The portrait records his presence and the difficult mediating work he carried out. McKenney, former Superintendent of Indian Trade, and James Hall assembled the multi-volume History of the Indian Tribes of North America, a landmark of nineteenth-century American lithography and ethnography that set out to preserve the likenesses of Indigenous leaders during a period of profound upheaval.