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Show remaining aquatints included those produced from watercolors and sketches of Indian shrines, lodgings, and other related Indian subjects observed during the expedition. A Preliminary Examination Analysis of an Aquatint Close examination of individual aquatints representing these separate subjects provides an opportunity for evaluation not only of the documentary and artistic worth of Travels' illustrations, but also of the methods by which these images have been historically interpreted, since each of these four categories-portraits, landscapes, composites, and Indian shrines-were produced in differing ways. One watercolor, later chosen for reproduction, that falls into this last category was painted in the late fall of 1833 (Figure 1.1). It depicts two of the many religious totems Maximilian and Bodmer saw near the Mandan village of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kusch, near Fort Clark in present-day North Dakota. In his published account Maximilian describes these totems: ...there are, in the vicinity of the villages of the Mandan and Manitaries, other strange figures on high poles. These figures are composed of skin, grass, and twigs, which, it seems, represent the sun and moon, perhaps also the lord of life, and the first man. The Indians resort to them when they wish to petition for any thing. And sometimes howl and lament for days and weeks together.^ The finished painting satisfied Maximilian's documentary requirements and is a good example of Bodmer's traditional training in composition.^ The |