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    • What was the tribe of Pocahontas?
    • Four Names of Pocahontas
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    • Controversies
    • Is John Smith's account of his rescue by Pocahontas true?
    • Did John Smith misunderstand a Powhatan 'adoption ceremony'?
    • What was the relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith?
    • Is it possible that John Smith never actually met Pocahontas?
    • Was Smith's gunpowder accident actually a murder plot?
    • How should we view John Smith's credibility overall?
    • How was Pocahontas captured?
    • Did Pocahontas willingly convert to Christianity?
    • What should we make of Smith's "rescues" by so many women?
    • Were Pocahontas and John Rolfe in love?
    • What was the meaning of Pocahontas's final talk with John Smith?
    • How did Pocahontas die?
    • How did John Rolfe die?
    • Was there a Powhatan prophecy?
    • Why didnt the Indians wipe out the settlers?
    • When did the balance of power shift from the Powhatans to the English?
    • How big a part did European diseases play in the Jamestown story?
  • Books
    • Books
    • Books for Adults
    • Books for Children
    • On Custalow's 'True Story'
    • Is the Sedgeford Hall Portrait Evidence of a Crime?
    • Beaver Page
    • Notes on Literary Hoaxes and Historical Theory
    • How the Indians Lost Their Land
    • Notes in the Margins
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    • More on Van de Passe Engraving
    • Statue
    • The Disney representation of Pocahontas
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Historical Images (Engravings and Watercolors)


Sketches of Algonquin Indians roughly contemporary to Pocahontas were made by John White (1540-1593), an artist and later the governor of the Roanoke Island settlement of North Carolina. His images are now commonly used to illustrate accounts of tribes located at or near the Jamestown colony, though they are not specifically of Powhatan Indians. The images are with us today because White painted various Secotan Indian village scenes in 1585-86 during his first trip to what was then called Virginia (now North Carolina) when he served as official artist and map maker for an exploratory expedition. White's watercolors are considered the only existing contemporary visual representations of American Indians from the time of the first English colonizers.

​Engravings, which could appear in the print media of the time, were soon made by Theodor De Bry and published in 1590 in A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, by Thomas Harriot (1560-1621). The De Bry engravings below, based on the John White watercolors, are taken from the Briefe and True Report. Captions with their idiosyncratic spellings. The De Bry engravings are the images that the public at large would have seen until it became possible to reproduce watercolors in print media hundreds of years later.
Theodor De Bry engravings (1590) based on John White watercolor sketches
(Scroll further down for John White watercolors)
Picture
A weroan or great Lorde of Virginia
Picture
On of the chieff Ladyes of Secota
Picture
A younge gentill woeman doughter of Secota
Picture
A cheiff Lorde of Roanoac
Picture
A chieff Ladye of Pomeiooc
Picture
The manner of makinge their boats

John White watercolors, circa 1585-1593
Picture
Secoton (1585~1593)
Picture
Ceremonial dance (1585~1593)
Picture
Indian village of Pomeiooc (1585~93)
Flash Media 3-D rendering (sorry Apple!) by Univ. of Virginia's Dr. Earl Mark
and students Kriag Schmidt and Will Sparks, from Virtual Jamestown
Picture
Indian in body paint (1585~86)
Picture
Indian woman and young girl (1585~86)
Picture
Theire sitting at meale
Picture
One of the wyves of Wyngyno
In an unfortunate lapse, White portrayed the woman with two right feet!
Picture
One of the wyves of Wyngyno (partial)
Picture
Campfire ceremony (1585~1593)
Picture
The manner of their fishinge (1585~1593)
Picture
The tombe of their Cherounes or cheife personages (1585~1593)

Not Powhatan or Secotan, but interesting. The watercolor below is a John White painting of a Timucuan woman possibly based on a lost Jacques Le Moyne original John White himself did not travel to Florida or encounter any Timucuan Indians. (from Sloan (2007) in Drawing with Great Needles: Ancient Tattoo Traditions of North America (2013) by Aaron Deter-Wolf, Carol Diaz-Granados).
Picture
Of Florida

Index of White Watercolors and De Bry Engravings at Virtual Jamestown
Significance of John White - Lisa L. Heuvel at Jamestown Settlement & American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
England's First View of America at The British Museum
The British Museum collection online; search term 'Secotan'
The Art of John White - NCPedia, article by Suzanne Mewborn (2007)


As far as I can tell, these images are all public domain. Many of them are available at The British Museum. - collection online

​
March 30, 2019

​Updated Aug. 20, 2020

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  • Home
  • History
    • History
    • What was the tribe of Pocahontas?
    • Four Names of Pocahontas
    • Timeline
    • Pocahontas Bio by Charles Dudley Warner
  • Controversies
    • Controversies
    • Is John Smith's account of his rescue by Pocahontas true?
    • Did John Smith misunderstand a Powhatan 'adoption ceremony'?
    • What was the relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith?
    • Is it possible that John Smith never actually met Pocahontas?
    • Was Smith's gunpowder accident actually a murder plot?
    • How should we view John Smith's credibility overall?
    • How was Pocahontas captured?
    • Did Pocahontas willingly convert to Christianity?
    • What should we make of Smith's "rescues" by so many women?
    • Were Pocahontas and John Rolfe in love?
    • What was the meaning of Pocahontas's final talk with John Smith?
    • How did Pocahontas die?
    • How did John Rolfe die?
    • Was there a Powhatan prophecy?
    • Why didnt the Indians wipe out the settlers?
    • When did the balance of power shift from the Powhatans to the English?
    • How big a part did European diseases play in the Jamestown story?
  • Books
    • Books
    • Books for Adults
    • Books for Children
    • On Custalow's 'True Story'
    • Is the Sedgeford Hall Portrait Evidence of a Crime?
    • Beaver Page
    • Notes on Literary Hoaxes and Historical Theory
    • How the Indians Lost Their Land
    • Notes in the Margins
  • Art
    • Art
    • Portraits
    • More on Van de Passe Engraving
    • Statue
    • The Disney representation of Pocahontas
    • Historical Images
  • Films
    • Films
    • Links to articles - Disney
    • Emerson Goes to the Movies
    • On "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"
  • Powhatan Tribes
    • Powhatan Tribes
    • Reservation Photos
  • Links
    • Pocahontas Quiz
  • Site Map
  • Contact