During the mid-19th century, George Catlin created two large collections of paintings featuring Indian portraits, genre scenes, and western landscapes. The first collection, which he called his "Indian Gallery," included more than 500 works completed during the 1830s. Most of the surviving paintings from this group are now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. During the 1850s and 1860s, Catlin created a second collection, numbering more than 600 works, which he called his "Cartoon Collection." The surviving works from this collection were acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1912. Paul Mellon purchased more than 300 paintings from the Cartoon Collection when they were deaccessioned. In 1965, he gave 351 works from this collection to the National Gallery of Art.
When Catlin exhibited the Cartoon Collection in New York in 1871, he published a catalog listing all the works. The catalog entries often included additional information about the subject of each painting. Catlin's catalog entry for this painting follows.
Cart. No. 67. Seminólee.
a. -- Ee-mát-la (King Phillip).
b. -- Ye-hów-lo-gee (The Cloud).
c. -- Co-ee-há-jó (-----).
d. -- Lá-shee (The Licker); four celebrated warriors of the Seminolees, made prisoners with Osceola.
e. -- Wónt-now (-----); a Seminolee woman, wife of one of the warriors.
f. -- Os-ce-ó-la (The Black Drink); a young boy, nephew of the chief , Osceola.
These portraits were painted at Fort Moultrie, whilst they were prisoners of war. 1838.