6. Drawing of Fort Vancouver

This hand-colored lithograph of Fort Vancouver was based on a sketch drawn by Henry James Warre in 1845 or 1846. The British government sent Warre, an army lieutenant, and another officer to the Pacific Northwest to ascertain the status of American settlement in the Pacific Northwest. They visited several forts and settlements around the region during their seven-month visit to the Oregon Country.

While the lithograph shows Natives at Fort Vancouver as wearing the headdresses and clothing of Plains Indians, Warre’s original rough sketch shows figures that might have been French Canadian or Metis (people of French Canadian and native ancestry). The lithograph is from Warre’s book, Sketches in North American and the Oregon Territory, published in London, England in 1848. The lithographer added additional Indians into the image, and may have altered their appearance to fit English assumptions about Native Americans.