Cyrus Dallin

Sarah Lawrence Brooks, Medford, Massachusetts (probably acquired directly from the artist)

William Appleton Lawrence, Cambridge, Massachusetts (acquired as a gift from the above on 7 June 1914)

Thence by descent to the present owner

E. Wilbur Pomeroy, "Cyrus E. Dallin and the North American Indian: Four Statues Which Express the Fate of a Dying Race," Arts & Decoration, vol. 4, February 1914, p. 153, another cast illustrated

Effie Seacrest, "Picture Study—Appeal to the Great Spirit," Normal Instructor and Primary Plans, vol. 28, January 1919, pp. 34-35, another cast illustrated

Rell G. Francis, Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done, Springville, 1928, pp. 33-34, 43-50 and 52, other casts illustrated

Loring Holmes Dodd, The Golden Age of American Sculpture, Boston, 1936, p. 101, another cast illustrated

Patricia Janis Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, pp. 94, 98, 103, and 368, another cast illustrated

Appeal to the Great Spirit depicts a Sioux chief after his defeat to the U.S. Army, seeking divine guidance as he now enters negotiations with his opponent. The present work is a reduction of Dallin’s most famous sculpture, a monumental bronze located outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and originally commissioned by Peter C. Brooks. The Gorham Foundry was authorized to cast 107 editions of this size of Appeal to the Great Spirit between 1916 and 1947. Given the present cast's lack of copyright symbol and the Gorham edition number of QPN inscribed along the base, this work may date to earlier than the year of copyright, 1913.

This cast bears remarkable provenance, having been in the collection of the family of Peter C. Brooks since its inception. Acquired by Sarah Lawrence Brooks (1845-1915), the wife of Peter C. Brooks, it was passed into the hands of Right Reverend William Appleton Lawrence, the former Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and through the family to its present owner, a testament to this work’s resonant themes and historical significance. The underside of the sculpture bears a letter dated 1914 from Sarah Lawrence Brooks gifting the sculpture to her nephew William Appleton Lawrence.