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The association of Native Americans with tobacco dates to the time of Sir Walter Raleigh, who introduced the plant to England in 1586. Images of Natives holding large tobacco leaves or smoking pipes abounded in European prints and maps. Nineteenth-century figure carvers picked up on this popular association and created figures of Native Americans to advertise tobacconists’ shops. These figures are almost universally stereotypical and, at times, demeaning and offensive. This figure by Brooks is one of the milder versions of this type.
Exhibition History"Sign Sculpture: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in 18th and 19th C. America," Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 11, 1997 - October 26, 1997; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, February 19, 1998 - April 12, 1998; The Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, November 8, 1997 - January 25, 1998.
“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.
Artist
Thomas V. Brooks
(1828 - 1895)
Indian Maiden
Date1865-1875
MediumWood and paint
DimensionsOverall: 68 × 18 × 23 in. (172.7 × 45.7 × 58.4 cm)
Object numberN0041.1972
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Louis C. Jones
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextAcclaimed by fellow carvers, Brooks was the single most influential shop figure carver of his generation. He apprenticed in New York City under John Cromwell and owned his own carving business there from 1848 until 1879 when he moved to Chicago. Brooks claimed that his shop, with dozens of carvers, could produce hundreds of figures per year. Among Brooks’ apprentices was Samuel Robb, who later became a prominent New York City carver. This figure was purchased in 1871 by Frederick Reinhardt, a tobacconist in Utica, New York, where it stood on a second-story platform for at least 50 years.The association of Native Americans with tobacco dates to the time of Sir Walter Raleigh, who introduced the plant to England in 1586. Images of Natives holding large tobacco leaves or smoking pipes abounded in European prints and maps. Nineteenth-century figure carvers picked up on this popular association and created figures of Native Americans to advertise tobacconists’ shops. These figures are almost universally stereotypical and, at times, demeaning and offensive. This figure by Brooks is one of the milder versions of this type.
Exhibition History"Sign Sculpture: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in 18th and 19th C. America," Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 11, 1997 - October 26, 1997; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, February 19, 1998 - April 12, 1998; The Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, November 8, 1997 - January 25, 1998.
“American Folk Art: Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, January 25, 2001 – March 24, 2001.
On View
On viewc. 2002-2014
c. 1890-1910
c. 1905-1915
