The Reverend Samson Occom,

[OCCOM (Samson)] & CHAMBERLIN (Mason), after.

Publication Date: 1768

About this Item

The First Indian Minister that ever was in Europe, & who accompanied the Revs Nathanl Whitaker D.D. in an application to Great Britain for charities to support ye Revd Dr Wheelock's Indian Academy, & Missionaries among ye Native Savages of N. America. Mezzotint measuring 365 by 260mm. A very good copy, trimmed close to the plate, a little toned with some minor creases. London, Published according to the Act of Parliament, Henry Parker, at No. 82 in Cornhill, 20 September, A rare and important mezzotint of Mohegan writer, minister, and teacher Samson Occom (1723-92). This print is after Mason Chamberlin?s (1727-1787) portrait of Occom, which was painted during his visit to the British Isles in 1766 as part of a fund-raising tour at the behest of his mentor Eleazar Wheelock.    Occom (also Occum) had studied under Wheelock for four years before being ordained into the Presbyterian church, and besides his understanding of scripture and theology, he had significant knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was accompanied on his trip to Britain by the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, a white American minister who served as both companion and chaperone. Occom believed that his efforts abroad were to benefit the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, and this makes him the earliest recorded Indigenous missionary to travel from America to Great Britain.   Chamberlin was a founding member of the Royal Academy, most famous for his 1762 depiction of Benjamin Franklin, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The original painting of Samson Occom is lost. The mezzotint by John Spillsbury was produced a few months after Occom?s return to America in 1768.   Occom fits into a long lineage of Indigenous people, particularly Americans, who travelled against the tide of colonisation in the years before the American Revolution. Often diplomatic emissaries sent to seek audience with the regent, or captives exhibited as curiosities, Occom's status as a minister and preacher set him apart as a new type of visitor. "Unlike so many of his predecessors who crossed the Atlantic to see Great Britain's famous places and mingle with its eminent officials, Occom was of humble background - not from a prominent family in a major tribe, not a noted warrior or noted spokesman for his people. This impoverished schoolmaster and itinerant preacher had served equally impoverished northeastern American natives. Yet despite modest beginnings, chronic poor health, and recurrent penury, Occom's visit to England, Scotland, and Ireland was remarkable for its duration - about six times the length of most eighteenth-century Indian sojourns - and its financial success. Between February 1766 and April 1768, Occom's efforts, combined with those of his Anglo-American companions, brought Wheelock's school nearly £12,000. Wheelock would spend much of that windfall on the education of young Indians, but to Occom's profound dismay, he spent more of it to establish Dartmouth College, which almost exclusively enrolled students of English descent" (Vaughan, 191).   The image shows Occom bridging two cultures, dressed in the clothes of a colonial American minster, gesturing to the word of God in the open Bible on a lectern before him. Mounted on the wall above are the bow and arrow, a symbol of his Native identity, notably positioned behind Occom, as if to nod to a past that his salvation (and education) has enabled him to move beyond. This idea of civilisation and redemption through scripture ties into the Great Awakening teachings of figures like George Whitefield, with whom Occom lodged during his stay in London. Benjamin Franklin also stayed with Whitefield and the two may have overlapped.    Occom's representation differs significantly from other contemporary portraiture of Indigenous subjects. Perhaps the two most famous examples are George Romney's painting of Mohawk diplomat Joseph Brant, and Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Mai, the Ra'itean voyager who travelled to England from.

Seller Inventory # 256044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Reverend Samson Occom,
• Publication Date: 1768