John Ridge (d. 1839)

Artist/Maker
Bowen, J. T. __Lithographer ||Inman, Henry __After ||Greenough, F.W. __Publisher ||McKenney, Thomas Loraine __author ||Hall, James __author
Place Made
Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States of America
Date Made
1842
Medium
paper –ink
Dimensions
HOA: 20″; WOA: 13 1/2″
Accession Number
5507.4
Description
This print is based on a painting of John Ridge done in Washington, D.C. During the nineteenth century native tribes routinely sent delegations to Washington, D.C., to negotiate with the American government. In 1816 Thomas Lorraine McKenney (1785-1859) was appointed the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. McKenney was eager to record the delegations and their distinctive dress for posterity. He engaged artists such as Charles Bird King (1785-1862), James Otto Lewis (1799-1858), and George Cooke (1793-1849) to paint portraits of these visitors to Washington.

President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was critical of McKenney and his sympathetic treatment of America’s native peoples. In 1830 he removed McKenney from office. Following his dismissal McKenney arranged to have the portraits secretly copied by the artist Henry Inman (1801-1846) and taken to Philadelphia for engraving. McKenney partnered with the author James Hall (1793-1868) and the first volume of “History of the Indian Tribes of North America” was published in 1836. Two more folio-sized volumes would follow.

Eventually the original portraits by King, Lewis, and Cooke, were to be deposited in the Smithsonian Institution. A fire at the Smithsonian in 1865 destroyed the vast majority of the original works on which McKenney and Hall’s prints were based. The original portrait of John Ridge by Charles Bird King survives, as does the portrait of the young Creek Mistipee (MESDA Acc. 5507.1).

Cherokee leaders, like Major Ridge, tried to adapt to the new Europeanized world around them. Major Ridge sent his son, John Ridge, to be educated at the Moravian mission school at Spring Place, Georgia. He sent his daughters to the Salem Academy here in Salem, North Carolina. John Ridge was also enrolled for several months in 1817 at the Brainerd Cherokee Mission School in Hamilton County, Tennessee. One of the daily notes in the Brainerd Journal records a day when John spoke up “in a hasty and petulant manner” and was reprimanded by his teaches who said “Little did we expect such a return from any of our schollars, & least of all did we expect if from John, a boy of whom we had great hopes.” After which “he burst into a flood of tears, — said that he meant no harm & was sorry he had given us so much trouble & pain. – We could freely forgive him.” Major Ridge visited the school two days later to check up on the report of his troublesome son. John was sent two years later in 1819 to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, where he completed his education.

In 1825, John Ridge was called to Washington, DC to assist the Creek delegation, that included the Creek chief Yoholo Mico and his son Mistipee, in composing their new treaty. When completed in January of 1826 the treaty was signed with the mark of Yoholo Mico and the signature of John Ridge, as Secretary.

While in Washington John Ridge was approached by the American diplomat, politician, ethnologist and linguist Albert Gallatin, who was working on a vocabulary of indigenous languages. He sought Ridge’s help in working on the Creek, Yuchi and Natchez vocabularies. Gallatin also asked Ridge to provide for him a “sketch of the progress made in the civilization of the Cherokees.” He reminded Ridge of “the favourable effect . . . his essay written by a native Indian may have on public opinion both here and abroad.” Ridge agreed to do this in hopes that his description might indeed aid the Cherokee cause against removal. In his lengthy essay Ridge wrote of the Moravian School at Salem: “. . . many of our most respectable people have their children educated in the adjoining States at the expense of their friends. Two young ladies have recently finished their Studies [at the expense of their father] in the Salem Academy in North Carolina. Their cultivation and appearance is such, that they will bear the test of comparison with those of any Class in the Universities. Their Father has purchased a costly Piano for their use. I am acquainted with others who are preparing for an admission into that excellent Institution.“

John Ridge’s essay concluded with these sobering words: “I might indulge in sad review of the past, and point to Nations once powerful, that as Lords of the creation roamed America’s Forests. The sun of our glory is set, and we are left the Shadow of what once was a reality! Powerful in war & sage in peace, our Chiefs now sleep with their heroic deeds in the bosom of the Earth! It was not their destiny to become great. Had they concentrated their Council fires, their empire might have stood like a Pyramid, for ages yet unborn to admire . . . It is true, we enjoy self-government, but we live in fear, and uncertainty foretells our Fall. . . We are in the paw of a Lion. . . .”

By 1835 Major and John Ridge were convinced that the Cherokee Nation’s only hope for survival was migration. They were among the signers of the Treaty of New Echota which exchanged Cherokee land for land in Oklahoma. In 1837 the Ridge family left Georgia for their new home. In 1838 the United States Government forced the remaining Cherokee from their lands. Thousands died along the Trail of Tears west. In 1839 angry survivors of the forced migration to Oklahoma assasinated Major and John Ridge.

RELATED OBJECTS: The MESDA collection also contains three additional prints from this book: John Ridge’s father, Major Ridge (5507.3); and Creek Chief Yoholo-Micco (5507.2) and his son Mistippee (5507.1); MESDA also has the original portrait of Mistippee by Charles Bird King (3543). The portraits of Mistipee and John Ridge are two of the few original paintings commissioned by McKenney to survive; “A Map of Bainerd” (MESDA Acc. 5798)

DESCRIPTION: Hand colored lithograph on paper of John Ridge; taken from original print by James Otto Lewis, originally painted by Charles Bird King. Three-quarter view of John Ridge facing left with head slightly turned center; seated at a table, with feather pen in his right hand, writing on a piece of paper; his left hand rests on the paper. John Ridge wears a navy coat, navy waistcoat, white shirt and white cravat. His face is soft in color with slight tinting of cheeks and lips in pink; his eyebrows are dark, and his hair is dark and short with waves. His gaze is soft with brown eyes.

Printed underneath the image is the following: John Ridge, A Cherokee

History
Published to accompany pages 181-183 of volume 2 of Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall’s “History of the Indian Tribes of North America” in 1842.
Credit Line
MESDA Purchase Fund