Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
August 14, 1797
Primary Source Reference:
Aurora. General Advertiser (Philadelphia), 14 Aug 1797
Additional Source Text:
"A principal Village Chief of the Shawanoes and a powerful orator; he delivered an excellent speech at a Grand Conference held at the Museum in Philadelphia on the 2d of December 1796, at which were present the Secretary of War, and several Chiefs and warriors of the Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Chippewas, Patawatimes, &c. -- He died at Pittsburgh, on his return home. -- A grave stone has been erected to his memory with this inscription, 'Musquacanokan, or Red Pole, principal village chief of the Shawanoe Nation, Died at Pittsburgh the 28th January 1797, lamented by the United States.'"
This object was one of ten "Wax Figures, the size of life, and in the proper dress of those countries whose character they are intended to represent. Several of them are real portraits taken from the natives." "To appreciate the several dresses which have been presented to the Museum, and to exhibit the manner of wearing them, have induced [C. W. Peale] at considerable expence and labour to make the . . . figures; and he has taken much pains to form the characters of the several nations represented as perfect as possible, hoping that in that point of view they will be useful."
Notes:
Red Pole, or Muscquaconocah (d. 1797) was one of about fifty Native Americans representing the rival northwestern and sountheastern tribes who met, perhaps inadvertently, at the Peale Museum on 1 Dec 1796. Peale used the occasion to execute wax figures of Red Pole and Blue Jacket, another Shawnee chief who may have been a brother of Red Pole. Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 160-164; James McHenry to George Washington, 28 Nov 1796, Washington Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0115
