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Essays on Images

One of the reasons why Pocahontas is the most familiar Indian woman in American history and perhaps the most familiar Indian of them all is the wealth of images of her (we have over 150 images in the Archive collection). Pocahontas has been "done" on paper, on canvas, in stone, in film, over and over and over again. Our appetite for seeing her seems insatiable. The best of these images are not simply adjuncts to and ornaments for texts, not simply adornments to fill a page, to line a margin. They have a life of their own. They help us know her. They capture attention. They captivate consciousness. Since visual representations of Pocahontas are so pervasive, so striking, even so alluring, then, we are devoting this separate ever-growing collection of essays in the Pocahontas Archive to our centuries-old desire for face-time with America's sweetheart.

Edward J. Gallagher

The Assimilated Pocahontas: Simon van de Passe's "Matoaka als Rebecca"

Sarah Ballan

Picture-Book Propaganda: E. Boyd Smith's Pocahontas at Plymouth

Maryann Pasda DiEdwardo

Pocahontas as "Christy Girl"

Robin Pertusi

The Peacemaker Pocahontas:John Gadsby Chapman's The Baptism of Pocahontas

Gaelyn Rosenberg

Pocahontas Lives: Stearns' The Death of Pocahontas