Seth Eastman

born Brunswick, Maine, 1808; died Washington, D.C., 1875

BiographyBorn in Brunswick, Maine, Seth Eastman studied drawing under Thomas Gimbrede when he attended West Point from 1824 to 1829. When he was stationed at Fort Snelling in Minnesota in 1830 he began to apply his artistic talents to Native American subjects, undertaking a serious study of the peoples of the Upper Mississippi River. Eastman returned to West Point from 1833 to 1840 to teach drawing, but by 1841 he was back at Fort Snelling making sketches that documented the everyday life and folklore of the native cultures in the region. He is probably most noted for recording everyday, domestic scenes of his subjects. Beginning in 1851, he contributed over 275 pages of illustrations to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s six-volume work, Information Regarding the History, Conditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. In addition to his artistic pursuits Eastman served in the Civil War, retiring as a brigadier general in 1863.

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