Annotated Bibliography

Paul Kane
Selected, Annotated Bibliography

Benham, Mary L. The Canadians: Paul Kane. Don Mills, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1977.

• This work is directed at young adults and includes discussion questions throughout the text. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.

Bessai, John and Joan Prowse. From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane. [DVD] Toronto: CineFocus, 2006.

• This two-part DVD offers an interactive documentary on the Canadian artist. Includes earlier documentary Visions from the Wilderness: The Art of Paul Kane. Offers link to on-line teacher’s guide. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.

Eaton, Diane and Sheila Urbanek. Paul Kane’s Great Nor-west. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press,

• 1995.
• This narrative places Kane’s journal in an historical context drawing on the artist’s diary using Kane’s manuscript journal as transcribed by MacLaren and the published text of Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America. Includes selected bibliography, index and works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.

Fitzgerald, William R. On the Threshold of a Dream. Southampton, ON: Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre,

• 2005.
• Exhibition catalog places Kane’s 1845 visit to Saugeen Ojibwa Territory, Canada in the context of the era. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection and recommended reading list.

Harper, J. Russell, curator. Paul Kane 1810-1871. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1971.

• An exhibition catalog of the first occasion on which Kane’s sketches and canvases of the Northwest were exhibited together. Exhibition was organized for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art and the National Gallery of Canada. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection. English and French.

___, ed. Paul Kane’s Frontier; Including Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America, by Paul    

• Kane. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971. 
• Exhaustive study of Kane’s work in four parts: his life and career; the Wanderings of an artist…; his sketches and paintings; and a catalogue raisonné. Published for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art and the National Gallery of Canada. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.
   

___ .The Way West: Art of Frontier America. New York: Harry N. Abrahms, Inc., 1977.

• This work includes a chapter on Kane which discusses the inspiration he took from George Catlin’s works. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.

Kane, Paul. Sketch Pad. Toronto: Charles J. Musson Limited, 1964.

• A facsimile of an original Kane sketch pad in the Royal Ontario Museum. Includes short biography of the artist by E.S. Rogers, of the Royal Ontario Museum.

___. Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1996.

• Originally published in 1859 to great acclaim. It was the first book written on the lands northwest of the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean that was not a work of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Includes bibliographical references.

MacLaren, I.S., ed. “Journal of Paul Kane’s Western Travels 1846-1848.”

• [transcription] Special Issue Journal of American Art XXI, no. 2 (1989): 23 - 62. The artist’s own account of his two years of travel along the northern fur-trade route, reproduced as exactly as possible. The journal was transcribed by MacLaren from the original in the Stark Museum of Art collection. Paul Kane, Journal kept on his 1846-48 journey. 11.85/5.

___. “Notes Towards a Reconsideration of Paul Kane’s Art and Prose,” Canadian Literature. 113-114 (1987):

• 179-205.
• An essay discussing the differences between Kane’s field sketches in watercolor and the studio works in oil. The author also considers Kane’s point of view and his written records. Includes works from the Stark Museum of Art collection.
   

___. “On the Trail of Paul Kane’s Wanderings of an Artist,” Prairie Fire X, no. 3. (1989): 28-41.

• This journal article investigates the possibility that Kane was not the sole author of the title attributed to him: Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America. MacLaren describes his visit to the Stark Museum and compares Kane’s manuscripts in the Stark Museum of Art collection with the published book.

Schimmel, Julie. Stark Museum of Art: The Western Collection 1978. Orange, TX: Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark

• Foundation, 1978.
  Catalog of the Stark Museum’s Western Art collection at the time of its opening in 1978. The Stark Museum of Art holds one of the major collections of Paul Kane’s works. This catalog contains a listing of all its works of art and manuscript material, thus it is a useful tool for Kane researchers. Schimmel is a former curator of the Stark Museum of Art.

Turano, Jane Van Norman, ed. Special Issue. American Art Journal XXI, no. 2 (1989).

• Entire journal is dedicated to Kane. Includes “I came to rite thar portraits: Paul Kane’s journal of his western travels, 1846-1848” by Ian MacLaren in which he places Kane’s travels as an artist in context. MacLaren’s complete transcription of Kane’s journal is published here (pages 23-62). Also a “Glossary of Common Terms” (pages 63-65) and a “Guide to People and Places in Kane’s Journal” (pages 66-87) both compiled by MacLaren. Includes selected bibliography and works from the Stark Museum of Art collection. Paul Kane, Journal kept on his 1846-48 journey. 11.85/5.

Vaughn, Thomas, ed. Paul Kane: The Columbia Wanderer 1846-1847 Sketches and Paintings of the Indians and his

• Lecture, "The Chinooks". Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1971.

The text of a lecture presented before the Canadian Institute by Kane on March 14, 1855. The lecture focuses on the Chinook tribe with whom Kane spent a year. Includes drawings from the Royal Ontario Museum and the National Gallery of Canada and a “pronouncing dictionary” of the Chinook vocabulary.  

Selected titles may be available for purchase in the Museum Store. For Museum Store information call 409-886-2787 ext. 13.

You can also consult your local library. Books not in the holdings of your local library can often be borrowed through inter-library loan.

Stark Museum of Art, Research Library 712 Green Avenue, Orange, TX 77630. January 2008.