Appeal to the Great Spirit

Cyrus Edwin Dallin, American, 1861 - 1944
Gorham Manufacturing Company, Providence, Rhode Island

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1912; cast about 1922

Bronze

Overall: 39 3/4 × 26 1/4 × 36 15/16 in. (100.9 × 66.6 × 93.9 cm)

Base: 1 15/16 × 9 1/4 × 28 in. (5 × 23.5 × 71.1 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through a gift from the Honorable Leslie P. Snow, Class of 1886

S.928.15

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Sculpture

Research Area

Sculpture

Not on view

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, on top of base, proper left side: c[circled] C.E. Dallin 1912; inscribed, on proper right side of base, near back: QAPU #7 / GORHAM Co. FOUNDERS.

Label

Like the works of many other European and American artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Cyrus Dallin’s sculpture narrates a specific story about the decline, loss, and erasure of Indigenous peoples of North America. The original sculpture was installed in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1912 and remains the most visible representation of Native Americans at the MFA. From this original cast, more than 400 authorized bronze statuettes were cast in three different sizes. This particular sculpture was installed in the Tower Room of the Dartmouth College Library in 1928, and, apart from its inclusion in exhibitions at the Hood Museum and other institutions, has remained there until now. The production and circulation of this sculpture speaks to the ongoing legacy of Euro-American narratives of the “vanishing race,” a narrative Monkman’s reinterpretations across the gallery playfully challenges.

From the 2023 exhibition Kent Monkman: The Great Mystery, curated by Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Indigenous Art

Course History

Film Studies 42.23, Travelers and Tourists, Heidi Denzel, Spring 2023

College Course 21.01, What's In Your Shoebox? , Francine A'Ness and Mokhtar Bouba, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 21.01, Indigenous People Political Economies, Raymond Orr, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 30.26, Indigenous Geographies, Elan Pochedley, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 8.01, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Raymond Orr, Spring 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

English 62.05, Horrors of Survival: Modern American Literature, Jamie Godley, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023

Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944), The Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York, April 16-August 27, 1995.1995

Images of the West: Selections from the Permanent Collection, MALS 190, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 15-August 28, 1994.

Kent Monkman: The Great Mystery, Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 8 - December 9, 2023.

Public Art, Tower Room, Baker-Berry Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1928.

The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, December 16, 2013-April 13, 2014; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, May 9-August 31, 2014.

Publication History

Catalogue of Portraits, and other works of Art at Dartmouth College, Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1932, p. 55, no. 237.

Ekaterina Ford, Dartmouth College June 2003 Memorial Ceremony Hosted by the Members of the Class of 1998 (brochure), June 2003, 6pp., cover ill.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 124, no. 97.

Thayer Tolles and Thomas Brent Smith, The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 192 pp., ill. p. 170.

Provenance

Source unknown [purchased with funds from Leslie P. Snow (1862-1934, Class of 1886), Rochester, New Hampshire], 1928.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

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