Elbridge Ayer Burbank (1858-1949)
Chief Geronimo Apache 1899, Pencil. 1946.
Harvard-Diggins Library, Harvard, Illinois.
Artist Elbridge Ayer Burbank spent his life painting portraits of Native Americans, such as Apache Chief Geronimo, pictured here. Burbank was the only artist ever to paint Chief Geronimo, and visited him many times throughout his travels. He redrew several paintings in pencil for the British publication The Graphic.
Born in Harvard, Illinois, Burbank studied at the Academy of Design in Chicago, now the International Academy of Design and Technology. His uncle, Edward E Ayer, later commissioned him to paint Chief Geronimo, which directed him into his life’s work.
Unlike many other painters, he drew Native Americans in a realistic way, rather than create an exotic image the rest of America expected to see.
Over his lifetime he visited 128 different tribes, and completed over 1200 sketches and paintings of men, women, and children.
Burbank Among the Indians, Book. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1944.
Harvard-Diggins Library, Harvard, Illinois.
It is interesting that one of the first popular artists to come from McHenry County dedicated his life to learning about Native Americans. Just over a decade before Burbank’s birth the area had been in the midst of the Black Hawk War. Most of the Native Americans were driven west because of the Indian removal efforts by the government.
Two years before Burbank’s birth, in 1956, the government instigated the Indian Relocation Act. The intention of the act was to push Native Americans to migrate out of their reservations and mingle with white American culture.
Rather than encouraging this move, Burbank traveled to visit the Native Americans in their homes. He painted them in clothes and appearance reflective of their culture. Burbank grew to recognize the various differences between the tribes and recounted the different social structures and sub-cultures he discovered in his book, Burbank Among the Indians.
Inside Burbank Among the Indians.
Burbank struggled with bipolar disorder most of his life, and sought treatment at several institutions. He died a few months after he was hit by a cable car in San Fransisco, California.
Visit a timeline of his works and life, assembled by the Harvard-Diggins Library.
The Harvard-Diggins Library also has Burbank Among the Indians as a webpage you can read online here.
E.A. Burbank Timeline (2004); Burbank (1944)
_____________________________________________
Stories, Structures, and Songs 