McKenney and Hall, 1836-1844 - WESH-CUBB. A CHIPPEWAY CHIEF., From History of the Indian Tribes of North - ca. 1836 - T-Shirt

This hand-coloured lithographic portrait shows Wesh-Cubb, a Chippewa chief, in a bare-chested bust framed against plain paper.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figure fills the centre of the composition as a close bust portrait, with the rest of the sheet left as open cream paper. Warm tan dominates the skin tones, while cream and off-white form the ground. Small accents of black and brick red appear in the neckerchief, the brass collar, and the red band on the feathered headdress. A white blanket drapes over one shoulder, giving the figure its only broad pale mass. Printed lettering on the sheet reads "A Chippeway Chief" and "Philadelphia Published by E. C. Biddle."

Meaning & Symbolism

The headdress, neckerchief, brass collar and blanket are the details the artist chose to record, and each signals the sitter's standing within his nation. The portrait was published in the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, a three-volume work co-authored by Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall. McKenney, former Superintendent of Indian Trade, commissioned the portraits to accompany ethnographic accounts. The images were made during treaty negotiations and territorial loss in the Great Lakes region, and they belong to a project shaped by the assimilationist assumptions of nineteenth-century federal policy. Read today, the plates are both a record of Indigenous leaders and a document of how they were seen by their observers.

Wear the Portrait

A bust portrait suits a shirt because the figure sits square on the chest, so the face and headdress read clearly from across the room. The plain paper behind Wesh-Cubb translates to the open fabric of the tee, letting the sitter's profile and the printed lettering stand on their own. Worn as a standalone piece, the print keeps the original plate's focus on one man and his dress.