The Woodcock Museum |Adventures and Sufferings: The American Indian Captivity Narrative Through the Centuries

Appendix I

Early Graphic Artists and the Indian Captivity Narrative-A Contribution to the History of American Book Illustration

Before many books in America possessed illustrations of any sort, printers added exciting, melodramatic and lurid detail to the many Indian captivity narratives which they published through numerous illustrations gathered from contemporary artists. Indeed, some of the first illustrated books in America were captivity narratives. As if the graphic imagery detailed in the prose were not enough to set the tone of these works, it was almost as if pictures could add to the veracity of the extraordinary and frightening tales.

Frances and Almira Hall [Rachel (later Mrs. Munson) and Sylvia (later Mrs. Horn) Hall]

Narrative of the Capture and Providential Escape of Misses Frances and Almira Hall. [New York?: 1833?] (copyright 1832 by William P. Edwards) Narrative of the Capture and Providential Escape of Misses Frances and Almira Hall. [New York?:1833?] (copyright 1832 by William P. Edwards)

In the matter of origins works of travel and description in America in were some of the earliest illustrated books in the New World, and these texts often would depict the fascinating, original inhabitants of North America-their customs, their ornaments and arms, their homes and way of life-all of these aspects of Indian lore were of perennial interest to Europeans. Artists and writers such as White, Lahontan or Lafiteau fostered a centuries' long diet of illustration for readers in the colonies and the Old World.

The illustration of captivity narratives grew out of this tradition, in part, along with the tradition of illustrating saints' lives and martyrdoms and the violence of the religious wars between Catholic and Protestant during the Reformation and the early modern historical age.