Background
Lewis, James Otto was born on February 3, 1799 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Lewis, James Otto was born on February 3, 1799 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Acting in his official role during the 1820s, Lewis attended numerous Indian treaties and ceremonies held in Indiana and Wisconsin where he began to take portraits of many of the participants.
Lewis began his engraving career in Philadelphia about 1815. He went west in 1819 and began traveling with Government. Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory while the United States. Government employed him to paint portraits of Indians from 1823 to 1834.
In 1826 Thomas L. McKenney who was the superintendent of Indian Affairs accompanied Government.
Cass on one of the official trips into. McKenney became a very important figure in Lewis"s career when in 1827 McKenney"s Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes.. containing twenty-nine engraved or illustrated images, with the majority of them appear to be by Lewis, although he is not credited on any of the plates.
His work is identified by both the many references to the artist"s work within the text and the style of his images. Of the 80 plates in the final Aboriginal Portuguese Folia, the remaining 9 were sketched at Fort Wayne, 13 at Green Bay, 12 more from Fond du Lac, 12 more were from "Massinnewa" (expedition in 1826) with the remaining 3 from unidentified locations.
Lewis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.A., in 1799.
He died in New York City, New York, in 1858. Lewis" work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.