Skip to main content
The Walters Art Museum

Online Collection

Explore the Art Collection keyboard_arrow_down close
  • Explore By...
  • Category
  • Date
  • Medium
  • Creator
  • Places
  • Museum Locations
The Walters Art Museum walters-logo-white
  • Calendar
  • Art
  • Shop
  • Give Now
  • Visit
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Hours
    • Directions & Parking
    • Food, Drink, & Shop
    • Free Admission
    • Tours
    • Accessibility
    • Visitor Promise
  • Experience
    • Virtual Museum
    • Exhibitions & Installations
    • Programs & Events
    • Collections
    • Buildings
    • Baltimore
  • Support
    • Support the Walters
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Institutional Funders
    • Evening at the Walters
    • Volunteers
  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Leadership
    • Strategic Plan
    • Land Acknowledgment
    • Research
    • Policies
Image for A "Surround" of Buffalo by Indians
tooltip-icon Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Zero

Download Image Zoom
  • arrow_forward_ios
  • arrow_forward_ios
A "Surround" of Buffalo by Indians Thumbnail
A "Surround" of Buffalo by Indians Thumbnail

A "Surround" of Buffalo by Indians

Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810-1874) (Painter)
1858-1860
watercolor on paper
(18th and 19th Centuries )

Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference.

"A scene of this kind requires a large body of Indians, and when everything is in readiness (the distant plain being literally black with Buffalo), the 'runners' are called, mounted on fleet horses and well armed, who move cautiously toward the herd, keeping out of sight of the animals by traversing ravines and hollows. On reaching a proper distance, a signal is given and they all start at once with frightful yells, & commence racing around the herd, drawing their circle closer and closer, until the whole body is huddled together in confusion. Now they begin firing, and as this throws them into a headlong panic and furious rage, each man selects his animal, wheeling and coursing through the affrighted herd;- the dexterity and grace of the Indians and the thousands upon thousands of Buffalo moving in every direction over an illimitable prairie form a scene altogether, that in the whole world beside, cannot be matched." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).

In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.

Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1858-1860, by commission; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Share
  • social-item
  • social-item
  • social-item

Geographies

USA (Place of Origin)

Measurements

H: 9 9/16 x W: 17 9/16 in. (24.3 x 44.6 cm)

Credit Line

Commissioned by William T. Walters, 1858-1860

Location in Museum

Not on view

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

37.1940.200

Do you have additional information?

Notify the curator

Parent Object

Image for Series of 200 Watercolors

Series of 200 Watercolors

Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810-1874)
19th century
view details

Hours

  • Wednesday—Sunday: 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Monday—Tuesday: Closed

Location

600 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD
21201

Phone

410-547-9000

  • Visit
  • Experience
  • What's On
  • About
  • Shop
  • Support The Walters
copyright

The Walters Art Museum

  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy/Terms of Use
  • Copyright Info
  • facebook
  • instagram
  • twitter
modal close
Image for
tooltip-icon Creative Commons License

Tooltip description to define this term for visitors to the website.

zoom-btn zoom-btn preview-download
  • arrow_forward_ios
  • arrow_forward_ios