7/15/2023 0 Comments Sugar story nyc![]() Estimated dates, that are probably decades off, sometimes get assigned to an old looking image that lacks a verifiable date. Interestingly, photographs taken in Native American sugarbushes in the 19th century are surprisingly rare. In most cases, the best way to preserve an image of Native American sugaring was through photography. Unfortunately, we do not know if this image was painted “en plein air” on site, in the moment, or was a facsimile of what Eastman saw and remembered after visiting a sugarbush. Artist Seth Eastman brought real-world experience to his water color paintings of Native American activities in Minnesota and created a much more realistic scene with a 1853 image of what are probably Dakota people at a sugarbush near Fort Snelling, Minnesota. While there are a number of engravings from the mid-19th century showing what the artist imagined or was told a Native American sugarbush looked like, these images were not created from real-life experiences or in the field and are often woefully inaccurate. Seth Eastman 1853 watercolor titled “Indian Sugar Camp” ![]() Since one of the themes of this website is examining and sharing new evidence and studies of maple history, looking at early lines of Native American maple sugaring is always on my radar, in particular, accurate images and representations from the sugarbush. ![]() The role of Native Americans is a popular topic to those interested in the broader history of maple sugaring.
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