Herd of Bison Original 1859 Lithograph Print / American West / John Mix Stanley

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ORIGINAL 1860 HERD OF BISON SCENE BY JOHN MIX STANLEY. In 1853-1854 Isaac Stevens, first Territorial Governor of the Washington Territory, led an expedition from Saint Paul to Puget Sound and back crossing the Rockies in Montana and Idaho in order to find a workable railroad route through the Region. This was the so-called Northern Pacific Railroad Survey and was one of several surveys commissioned at that time to find possible railroad routes across the western frontier. Stevens was accompanied by artist John Mix Stanley. In his time, Stanley was one of the most prolific and well-regarded artists chronicling the western frontier. More than two-hundred of his western paintings were destroyed in a fire at the Smithsonian in 1865 and massive panorama featuring forty-two western scenes that was shown as a moving scroll in theaters was lost as well. More than 200 of his oil paintings survive and watercolors on which many of his railroad survey lithographs are based are in the collection of Yale University. He did illustrations related to several western surveys, the most comprehensive of these being his work on the Northern Survey route. Of the many images Stanley made for the Northern Survey, Herd of Bison Near Lake Jessie, is perhaps the most well-known. It has been reproduced in many accounts of the western frontier and overviews of western art and included in numerous exhibitions. Unlike other illustrations of massive buffalo herds of that time, this image has been credited as being the only one by someone whom had actually seen such a herd. And what a sight it must have been. Stevens in his journal indicates that some members of their party thought the herd was as many as half a million strong while he himself was confident it was at least 200,000 strong. This image was published twice. In 1859 it was produced in an initial edition of the Report on the Northern Survey. In that version the lithography was by Julius Bien and there was an extraordinary misstrike which led to a number of the bison images being subtly repeated as ghost-like shadow images on the print. In 1860 the Northern Survey Report was printed again, in this edition the lithography was by Sarony, Major & Knapp. In addition to the ghost bison images in the 1859 printing, the two versions have distinctly different feels to them. The coloration is softer in the 1859 version and brighter in the 1860 version. This offering is for the 1859 version and in another posting I am also offering the 1860 version. THE 1859 VERSIONS OF THE IMAGES FROM THE NORTHERN SURVEY ARE CONSIDERABLY MORE SCARCE THAN THE 1860 VERSIONS. THIS PARTICULAR IMAGE IS MOST THE MOST UNUSUAL OF THE 1859 IMAGES. THE MISSTRIKE CREATING A SERIES OF GHOSTLY SHADOW IMAGES OF BISON FORETELLS WHAT WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO THE VAST HERDS WITH THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD. IRONY IS ADDED IN THAT THE ARTIST THAT CAPTURED THIS SCENE WAS WORKING AS PART OF THE EFFORT TO CREATE THE VERY RAILROADS THAT LED TO THE DEMISE OF THESE VAST HERDS. OF ALL THE ARTISTS THAT DEPICTED SUCH HERDS, HE MAY HAVE BEEN THE ONLY ONE TO SEE SUCH A HERD AND, HE MAY BE THE ONLY ONE TO HAVE SUCH GHOSTING APPEAR IN HIS WORK. The image area is about 9.5" x 6.25" and the title falls outside the image area. The full page size is about 11" x 8.5". As is common in the 1859 versions of the Northern Survey prints, there is a bit of text offsetting on the image from an adjacent page of text. The left half of the page has a gentle wash of foxing to it; while the image is not 100% pristine, the foxing is subtle in the image area. read more

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