Views on Images of a New World: A Historiography of John White’s Drawings
The Roanoke voyages (1584-1590) were a series of explorations which resulted in an unsuccessful colony. One of the key figures in these voyages was artist and gentleman John White, governor of the 1587 colony, who created a series of watercolors to show images of the New World to England. These watercolors depict flora and fauna as well as the Algonquians, the Native Americans that lived on Roanoke and the surrounding area. White’s drawings have been studied by a range of scholars from both the United Kingdom and the United States including art historians, historians, ethnographers and natural historians. Even though the drawings were created in the sixteenth century, works about the drawings were not published until the late nineteenth century. Amongst the books, catalogues, and articles that evaluate the drawings sources by historians David Beers Quinn, Paul Hulton and Karen Kupperman as well as Art Historian Kim Slaon stand out as crucial parts of the historiography of White’s watercolors. Although they present the images in different ways, these scholars all agree that White’s drawings are important to the study of early American colonization. Books, catalogues, and articles written about John White’s detailed watercolors accurately explore how the images show the daily life of the Algonquians as well as what the watercolors told a sixteenth-century English audience.
One of the reasons why historians did not publish books, articles, and catalogues about the drawings until the late nineteenth century was because the watercolors were in private collections. The watercolors are in an album that was sold to the Earl of Charlemont in the late eighteenth century and sold at Sotheby’s in the mid-nineteenth century. Another album of the drawings, now considered a copy, was bought by Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum, in 1715.[1] The original drawings are now located at the British Museum, London. Since the drawings became public, historians have used them as sources for their discussion of the Roanoke Voyages, also known at the Lost Colony.[2] In 1891, the watercolors were photographed by the British Museum for the United States National Museum in Washington, D.C., and these photos are believed to be the first reproductions created without changes.[3] Although the images were reproduced, it took scholars another thirty to forty years to publish works that explored the wonders of White’s watercolors.
John White must have painted several drawings that were lost at sea when the colonist left Roanoke Island. Of the watercolors that survive there are sixty-three that depict American subjects including plants and animals as well as Native Americans. Fourteen of these American watercolors show the religious ceremonies, portraits, and two villages of the Algonquin. White made his watercolors to show the English, especially the main funders of the explorations to the New World, Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I, Native Americans culture.[4] Since the drawings provide detailed depictions of Native American daily life made with an English audience in mind scholars used these watercolors as primary sources to discuss early colonization.
In the late 1920s and early thirties there were a few articles that discuss White’s images; however, these attempts to study the drawings tended to focus more on the voyages and less on examining the details of the pictures. The first of these essays was a two part article published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography by David Ives Bushnell, an archeologist and expert in Native American ethnography.[5] According to Bushnell, the drawings were made during the second expedition to the New World and that the expedition created a high interest in England to see the appearance of the Native Americans.[6] In Bushnell’s second article he discusses Thomas Harriot’s A brief guide to the new found land of Virginia and how the text relates to the images.[7] Both articles provide pages that have the drawings with text from Harriot’s pamphlet explaining what aspects of Native American culture was depicted in the drawings. Although these articles provide important information on the voyages and the artist they do not analyze the individual images or provide explanations of what is depicted in the watercolors. Bushnell’s basic summery about how White’s pictures relate to the Roanoke voyages provides a basis for more extensive sources to expand on.
When World War II came in 1939 any minor attempts to study White’s artworks were pushed aside but plans to create an extensive monograph about John White’s drawings started in 1952.[8] The leaders of this project were David Beers Quinn, a historian of the Roanoke voyages from Ireland, and Paul Hulton. The work, The American Drawings of John White, 1577-1590, With Drawings of European and Oriental Subjects was completed in 1964. The book includes the first catalogue raisonné, a comprehensive list that explains all the known artworks of an artist, of John White’s works. In their book, Quinn and Hulton indicate that White was a very skillful artist and studying his work is important to understand the Roanoke Voyages. The authors conclude the drawings are more substantial than other sources “in affording a vivid and immediate impression of the life of the small Indian communities which first saw Europeans in the sixteenth century.”[9] In the book’s explanations of the drawings, which also include White’s depiction of people from the Middle East as well as the Picts from English history, the focus is on the depiction of Native American daily life.
In response to Quinn and Hulton’s work, William C. Sturtevant wrote an article entitled “Ethnographic Details in the American Drawings of John White, 1577-1590,” published in 1965. Sturtevant wrote a chapter about North American ethnography in Quinn and Hulton’s The American Drawings of John White. Sturtevant praises the catalogue and states, “This publication will surely henceforth be the major source on White’s drawings.”[10] Even though he praises the work of Quinn and Hulton, the bulk of the article are notes correcting certain details of the images that were not accurately reproduced. For example, he notes that in the Indian Village of Pomeioc supports of a bench are missing.[11] Sturtenant’s article proves that when examining these works of art details are important and that scholars of White’s work wanted to make sure every detail is correct.
The year 1985 marked the four-hundredth anniversary of the Roanoke colony and historians published a few publications to commemorate the event.[12] Paul Hulton wrote another book, America 1587: The Complete Drawings of John White (1985), in which he explains the watercolors and the historical conditions under which the drawings were made. He argues that the drawings show White’s commitment to the colony of Roanoke. Similar to Hulton’s earlier work he implies that White’s drawings are a valuable source in the study of Algonquian daily life. He states, “The considerable amount of information which White’s drawings do give us . . . and which has been shown to be remarkably accurate . . . provides points of reference of the greatest value for archaeologists working in the region and for ethnologists who have to interpret what they recover.”[13] In his discussion of the drawings of Native Americans he points out certain details in the drawings and what they say about Algonquian culture. For example he writes that the drawings help explain how archeologists’ discoveries such as beads or cooper plates were actually used by the Native Americans.[14] Similar to others who have studied the drawings before him, Hulton presents the work of John White and emphasizes the drawings’ importance to the study of Roanoke.
From the 1980s to the early 2000s historians used White’s drawings in their narratives of the Roanoke voyages. Although these text tend to focus on possible theories on what happen to the colonist and the history of the voyages, a few historians used the drawings in their discussion of the relations between the Native Americans and the English. With the rise of social history in the late twentieth century, people became interested in how the two cultures interacted and such was the case for Roanoke historians. Karen Kupperman, professor of social and cultural history of American colonization at the University of New York, published Settling with the Indians in 1980. In her book, she argues that the English colonists acknowledged that the Native Americans had culture but that the settlers were not necessarily interested in learning about Indian culture. Kupperman also claims that some colonists were intrigued by Native American culture and that English texts explaining Native American culture were very popular.[15] Her book discusses the way that the English described Native American religion, appearance, and society. Kupperman wisely uses White’s drawings to explain Native American appearance and she praised the drawings stating that “[John White] was meticulous is his effort to render an exact likeness.”[16] She does not follow Quinn and Pulton’s approach by going into detail of each of the drawings but instead explains how the drawings provided the English people with a view of the unknown Algonquin people.
As the twenty first century started, a new round of anniversaries connected to English colonization were celebrated. The year 2007 marked the two hundredth anniversary of Jamestown and some ceremonies took place at the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. White’s drawings are relevant to the founding of Jamestown in 1607 because the earlier Roanoke voyages provided important information about the New World that helped the plans for Jamestown. As part of the celebrations the British Museum sent White’s drawings to Jamestown for a special exhibit. The exhibit also went to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Kim Sloan, curator of British Drawings and Watercolors in the British Museum, wrote A New World: England’s First View of America (2007) to celebrate the special exhibition. In her book, she discusses John White’s life as an Elizabethan gentleman, White as an artist, and his part in the voyages to Virginia.[17] Using Quinn and Hulton’s work as a model, Sloan includes a catalogue that explains what is depicted in each drawing. She also provides images of the engravings made by Theodor de Bry.
In 2009, Kim Sloan also edited a collection of research articles about the John White and his artwork published by the British Museum called European Visions: American Voices. One of the articles is by Karen Kupperman and is entitled “Roanoke’s Achievement.” Kupperman discusses the presence of Manteo, a Native American who knew English because he went to England, when the drawings were being created. She argues that since Manteo was present White understood Algonquin customs and therefore depict a more civilized society. To support her claim she divides the images into the three ideas of civil Europe: “government and law; religion and settled life showing care for the morrow.”[18] Kupperman implies that White was a skillful artist and that his drawings are very important in understanding relationships between Native Americans and the English.
Although a traditional scholarly source has not been published since the works of Kupperman and Sloan, White’s drawings still remain popular in the digital studies of early American colonization and sixteenth century art. Two websites, The British Museum and Virtual Jamestown provide images of the drawings including information such as artist, date, size, and medium. The British Museum has all of White’s drawings on their online collection and each page provides a description as well as transcribed inscriptions from the watercolors.[19] These websites provide the public with access to information on the White’s drawings for the purposes of education and research. Sources on White’s drawings and the images themselves are easily accessible to the future scholar of White’s enlightening artworks because of the digital age.
Historians, art historians, and ethnographers who have studied the watercolors of John White have used his drawings in different ways yet they all reach similar conclusions. These scholars agree that the work of John White is skillful and provides insight into the world of the Native Americans as well as what the English thought about them. The essential scholars in the study of White’s drawings are David Quinn and Paul Hulton, because of their work on White’s catalogue raisonné, and Karen Kupperman who relate the drawings to social interactions between the English and Native Americans. Kim Sloan is also important because of her leadership in the 2007 exhibitions and the catalogue that followed. Throughout all the scholarship on the topic, it remains clear that John White’s watercolors are fascinating glimpses into the world of sixteenth century America.
Bibliography
Bushnell, David I., Jr. “John White: The First English Artist to Visit America, 1585. Part I.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 35, no. 4 (October 1927): 419-30.
Bushnell, David I., Jr. “John White: The First English Artist to Visit America, 1585. Part II.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 3, no. 1 (January 1928): 17-26.
Gaudio, Michael. “America in the Making: John White and the Ethnographic Image, 1585-1890.” PhD diss., Stanford University, 2001.
Green, Paul. The Lost Colony. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Hoffman, Paul E. Spain and the Roanoke Voyages. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1987.
Hoffman, Paul E. Spain and the Roanoke Voyages. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1987.
Hulton, Paul. America 1587: The Complete Drawings of John White. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
Kupperman, Karen. Settling with the Indians. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.
———. “Roanoke’s Achievements.” In European Visions: American Voices. Edited by Kim Sloane. London: The British Museum, 2009.
Quinn, David Beers and Paul Hulton. The American drawings of John White, 1577-1590, With Drawings of European and Oriental Subjects. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964.
Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair of Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Sloan, Kim. A New World: England’s First View of America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Sturtevant, William C. “Ethnographic Details in the American Drawings of John White, 1577-1590.” Ethnohistory 12, no. 1 (Winter 1965): 54-63.
The British Museum. “John White.” The British Museum. Accessed September 8, 2015. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=103070&peoA=103070-2-23.
[1] Kim Sloan, A New World: England’s First View of America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 12.
[2] The Lost Colony is also the name of a fictional play that is performed at Fort Raleigh National Park Manteo, NC during the summer. See Paul Green, The Lost Colony. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
[3] David I. Bushnell, Jr, “John White: The First English Artist to Visit America, 1585. Part I,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 35, no. 4 (October 1927): 420.
[4] Paul Hulton, America 1587: The Complete Drawings of John White (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 20-28.
[5] Virginia History Series, “Historical Hall of Fame: David Ives Bushnell,” Virginia History Series, accessed November 1, 2015, http://www.virginiahistoryseries.org/vhs2_web_site_02162012_187.htm.
[6] Bushnell, “John White: Part I,” 419.
[7] David I. Bushnell, Jr. “John White: The First English Artist to Visit America, 1585. Part II.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 3, no. 1 (January 1928): 17-26.
[8] David Beers Quinn and Paul Hulton, The American Drawings of John White, 1577-1590, With Drawings of European and Oriental Subjects (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964), xii.
[9] Quinn and Hulton, 34.
[10]William C. Sturtevant, “Ethnographic Details in the American Drawings of John White, 1577-1590,” Ethnohistory 12, no. 1 (Winter 1965): 54. For more on ethnography of White’s drawings see Michael Gaudio. “America in the Making: John White and the Ethnographic Image, 1585-1890,” PhD diss., Stanford University, 2001.
[11]Sturtevant, 56.
[12] Publications about the Roanoke Voyages for the anniversary include David Beers Quinn, Set Fair of Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985); Paul E. Hoffman, Spain and the Roanoke Voyages (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1987).
[13] Paul Hulton, America 1587: The Complete Drawings of John White (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 28.
[14]Hulton, 27-34.
[15] Karen Kupperman, Settling with the Indians (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980), vii.
[16] Kupperman, Settling, 33.
[17] Sloan, A New World, 14.
[18] Karen Kupperman, “Roanoke’s Achievements,” In European Visions: American Voices, ed. Kim Sloane (London: The British Museum, 2009), 5.
[19] The British Museum, “John White,” The British Museum, accessed September 8, 2015, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=103070&peoA=103070-2-23. See also Virtual Jamestown, “Index of White Watercolors and De Bry Engravings,” Virtual Jamestown, accessed September 8, 2015, http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/jamestown.html.