Hello fellow history lovers! I hope everyone had a great
holiday season and is ready for more mysteries from the museum! Our first of
the New Year is twofold.
To begin our Mystery Monday, there are some key facts to go
over. As many of you know, the Historical Society has been a repository of
local history for almost 100 years now. We house all sorts of things, some
artifacts and some just the random collection of items over the years. Our
mystery piece this week is one of the latter, a painting that came to us from
the Historic Fort Wayne offices.
The History Center is home to many pieces like this, things
that aren’t quite artifacts but are still held here. This painting was stored
in the fine arts collection without an accession number. It was easy enough to
show it to my boss and have her determine provenance, and soon enough we had a
new entry made for it in the database. With one mystery solved, it was then on
to filling the entry up with as much information as possible about the subject
matter.
This painting, given the identification number INV 4535,
portrays the Battle of Harmar’s Ford which took place in 1790. When I first
stumbled upon this piece, what immediately struck me was the artist’s choice of
perspective. I’m no expert in art but as a history student you’re taught to
analyze many types of primary sources, including artwork. Every piece is made
deliberately and thus every artistic choice is done with a goal or theme in
mind. The painting makes a conscious effort to place the viewer on the side of
the Native Americans, watching as they hold off the army of soldiers attempting
to ford the river. This was a bit unusual to me, so I became intrigued.
I wasn’t familiar with the Battle of Harmar’s Ford, so after
a little research I was able to gain a better understanding of why the artist
chose the perspective he used.
During the autumn of 1790, a series of battles took place
within the Ohio River Valley between soldiers and Native Americans. Named after
General Josiah Harmar, Harmar’s Campaign was fought in order to gain control of
the Northwest Territory after news of increased conflict between settlers and
Native Americans reached Washington in the east. To combat this, George
Washington sent out a troop of soldiers to quell the Native Americans, who were
led by Chief Little Turtle.
Accounts of the battles fought were bloody, the odds of victory
often overwhelmingly in favor of the Natives, and the defeat equally as
overwhelmingly embarrassing for the soldiers. The battles were typified by resounding
defeats on the part of the soldiers, thus giving the military campaign its less
flattering name, Harmar’s Defeat. It
became pretty obvious why the artist chose to depict such a scene, placing the
viewer firmly behind Native American lines while the soldiers knee-deep in the
river were shot down. This piece doesn’t sugar coat the colonial loss one bit.
As hard as it can be to admit it, history often times is not
kind. It can be ugly, gruesome, and vilify those we’d rather consider heroes.
Artwork like INV 4535 is a good example of history as a humbling power,
reminding viewers that things weren’t as cut and dry as sometimes thought and
that history is almost always a tumultuous conflict with contentious
contenders.
If you’d like to learn more about Harmar’s Defeat and other
early conflicts, check out the History Center’s 200 at 200 exhibit this
February, Contention for the Confluence.
Until next time!
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