A Blackfoot Indian medicine man. Coloured photograph, ca. 1913.

1900-1999

1 photograph : photoprint, with gouache ; image 29 x 20 cm

Blackfoot Indian medicine man. The head is covered with the skin of a yellow bear, the head of which serves as a mask. The skin of a yellow bear being rare in that district is therefore very powerful 'medicine'. To this skin are attached the skins of other animals also considered anomalous or monstrous, and therefore 'medicine'. Sihasapa (Blackfoot), Yellowstone River, U.S.A.

The composition is close to that of a painting by George Catlin of a Blackfoot "Medicine man, performing his mysteries over a dying man", 1832, published in his Letters and notes on the manners, customs and condition of the North American Indians. There however the medicine man holds the shield or drum downwards, towards the dying man. Here he holds it up. This particular image was a coloured enlarged photograph done by E Schwarz and accessioned into the collection in June 1915. It was featured in the "Hall of Primitive Medicine" exhibit in Wigmore Street in 1935. It is originally from a publication by Dr Max Bartels titled "Die Medicin der Naturvölker : Ethnologische Beiträge zur Urgeschichte der Medicin" on page 72 from the 1893 copy.

Wellcome Collection 677847i