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Found: Landing of Nicolet, Green Bay, Wis. Verso reads: This mural decoration on south wall of east entrance hall of Brown County Court House, represents the Landing of Jean Nicolet at Red Banks in 1634. He was the first white man to explore this region. Published by Bosse's New Depot Green Bay, Wis. circle 1934. |
The "Landing of Nicolet" postcard interpretation of a 1910 mural painting by Milwaukee-based panorama painter
Franz Edward Rohrbeck illustrates the mythic landing of the young
French woodland explorer Jean Nicolet in
1634 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Nicolet had been living with the
Alqonquin tribes (his guides are shown in the canoe behind him) in the wilderness as part of his hot pursuit of fur (mainly beaver) and an ocean trade passageway to China. Native
Ho-Chunk people are shown as exotic and cowering while offering the
ceremonial calumet while rock star Nicolet, clad in ostentatious silk robe (said to be Chinese
damask) accesorized by glistening pistols, asserts his authority. Another artist in another time may have illustrated the
spectacle as more peaceable and cooperative, but this performative show of domination apparently resonated culturally in the early 20th century in Northeastern Wisconsin. Based on a
mural painting (restored by
Conrad Schmitt Studios in 2010) at the
Brown County Courthouse (
100 South Jefferson Street, Green Bay), this postcard reflects an American social milieu where Native peoples were marginalized and colonialism was rationalized. So culturally canonical was this scene, that a version was used on a U.S. postage stamp in
1934 celebrating the
Wisconsin Trecentenary of Nicolet's landing at "Red Banks". The stamp version was based on an
earlier circa 1907 mural at the State Capitol in Madison by
Edward Willard Deming who is said to have associated throughout his life with Native Americans and hence more clearly articulated the humanity of the natives in his mural. Note the phrase "The first white man"used in the postcard caption with no white guilt. The Wisconsin Trecentenary was also marked by ceremonies and a speech by
FDR. The image can be read as evidence of the American power and identity struggles that enabled "the white man" to separate native peoples from their homelands.
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Found: Wisconsin Trecenenary (1634-1934) postage stamp |
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Found: Landfall of Jean Nicolet in Wisconsin (1907) by Edward Willard Deming on view in the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison
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