Harvard Art Museums > 2023.211: Hoowanneka (Little Elk), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Hoowanneka (Little Elk), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) (Charles Bird King) , 2023.211,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 21, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/333025. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text This portrait is tied to a larger early nineteenth-century effort to document indigenous cultures believed to be on the edge of extinction. Little Elk is one of the almost two hundred portraits of Native American leaders that Charles Bird King painted for Thomas McKenney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the U.S. War Department. An outspoken champion of westward expansion and a strong advocate for Indian removal, McKenney aspired “to collect whatever of the aboriginal man can be rescued from the ultimate destruction which awaits his race.” Little Elk sat for King while he was in Washington, DC, to negotiate a treaty on behalf of the Winnebago tribe of Illinois and Wisconsin. King portrayed his subject as an appeased warrior. The hands painted on his chest boast of his battlefield exploits, while the presidential peace medal around his neck, a ceremonial gift from the War Department, signals his loyalty to the United States. Identification and Creation Object Number 2023.211 People Charles Bird King, American (Newport, RI 1785 - 1862 Washington, DC) Title Hoowanneka (Little Elk), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Other Titles Former Title: Hoo-Wan-Ne-Ka ("Little Elk") Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 1828 Culture American Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/333025 Physical Descriptions Medium Oil on wood panel Dimensions 45.1 x 35.2 cm (17 3/4 x 13 7/8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History David I. Bushnell, Jr.; to his mother, Belle J. Bushnell; her bequest to Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 1946, transferred; to Harvard Art Museums, 2023 Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, gift of the Estate of Belle J. Bushnell, 1941 Accession Year 2023 Object Number 2023.211 Division European and American Art Contact am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History William J. Rhees, An Account of the Smithsonian Institution: its founder, building, operations, etc. (Washington, D.C., 1859), p. 56, no. 58 William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 23 Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "Relocation and Evaluation of the Bushnell Collection of Paintings and Other Works by Early American Artists at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology" (unpublished manuscript, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1971)., p. 8 Louise Todd Ambler and Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "American Painting at Harvard", Antiques (New York, NY, November 1972), vol. 102, no. 5, pp. 876-883, p. 879-880, fig. 11 Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 38, ill. G. Verona Taylor Whatmough, "The Bushnell Collection of Paintings and Other Works by Early American Artists" (unpublished manuscript, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 1973)., p. 45, no. 417 Mead Art Museum, Cowboys, Indians, Trappers and Traders, exh. cat. (Amherst, MA, 1973) Herman J. Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C., 1976), pp. 82-83, ill. Andrew J. Cosentino, The Paintings of Charles Bird King, 1785-1862, Smithsonian Institution for the National Collection of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C, 1977), pp. 62-63, 169, cat. 339, ill. p. 62 as fig. 43 Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 30, 326-28, cat. 291, ill. Exhibition History American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972 Cowboys, Indians, Trappers & Traders, Amherst College, Amherst, 02/01/1973 - 02/28/1973 The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/29/1995 - 05/13/2001 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 11/14/2022 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu