> At 03:43 PM 4/1/98 -0500, Anna Agbe-Davies wrote:
> >Fellow listmemembers (apologies for cross-postings)
> >
> >I'm looking for a picture I've seen numerous times in talks.  It is a
> >color painting of the excavation of a Native American (?) burial mound,
> >which looks to date to the 1st half of the 19th century.  The mound is
> >shown in section with strata, skeletons and pots visible.  In the
> >foreground there are a number of men, some are dressed in laborers'
> >clothing, are black and have shovels, others are dressed in suits and
> >are white.
 
Many thanks for all who replied!  Here's the scoop, for those who were
curious:
 
The painting which I sought is by John Egan, 1850, showing the Louisiana
excavations of one Montroville "Munro" Dickeson from the late 1830s.
Among the titles I have seen are "Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi
Valley" and "View of the Mississippi Valley."  It is owned by the St.
Louis Art Museum.
 
Dickeson used the picture (which is quite long) as a scrolling backdrop
for his lectures.  If you're interested in finding out more about
Dickeson or seeing a copy of the picture, see Richard Veit's article in
_Archaeology of Eastern North America_, vol 25 (1997).  Copies of the
picture can also be found in Paul Bahn's _The Cambridge Illustrated
History of Archaeology_ and I believe in Colin Renfrew and Bahn's
_Archaeology: Theory, Method and Practice_
 
The most interesting thing I found was the common association in people's
minds between the picture I described and Thomas Jefferson's excavation
of an Indian burial mound in 1784.  Bahn notes that Egan's picture is
often associated with that project. If there is, in fact, another
picture illustrating Mr. Jefferson's excavation, I'd be delighted to know
it's source, but this particular picture depicts another project.
 
Again, thanks for all the comments, references and encouragement!
 
Anna
 
--
Anna Agbe-Davies
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