1 Looking with Clearer Vision: The Significance of John White’s Watercolors By Lisa L. Heuvel The watercolor drawings of John White (c. 1540 - c. 1606) are widely recognized as priceless glimpses into the indig- enous cultures that colonial English explorers encountered, cultures that had existed for thousands of years. Each exist- ing watercolor has an enduring quality: The Algonquian- speaking men, women and children immortalized by White move through recognizable moments of daily life. White portrays them working, playing, and worshipping as people of grace and power. They are at ease in a landscape that is new to him, but an ancestral home to them. For museums and other culturally-based institutions, White’s images are indispensable visual evidence of the 16th- and early 17th-century mid-Atlantic indigenous world. Some, such as the warrior figure now identified as an Indian werowance, or chief, are popular iconic images seen in post- ers, books, and other modern depictions. Given their rich content and the lack of comparable visual sources, they have come to symbolize the Contact Era Algonquian population of the Mid-Atlantic region. John White sketched the American Indian peoples he en- countered through the lens of his English culture. There are levels of cross-cultural exchange suggested in the collabora- tive work he created with Thomas Hariot during their ex- ploration of Carolina. One tangible example appears in the watercolor drawing of an Indian woman and her daughter, inscribed, “A cheife Herowans wyfe of Po- meoc. | and her daughter of the age of .8. or. | .10. years.” The girl, wear- ing beads, carries a dressed English doll; in the later de Bry engraving, she holds a European rattle and a similar doll. The 1590 Theodore de Bry edition contains Hariot’s 1588 text of A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia. In it, Thomas Hariot’s caption for the de Bry engraving of the mother and child notes that “they [Indians] are most delighted with the dolls and little bells brought over from England.” Although we can only speculate about White’s level of involvement and trust with the Indian people he portrayed, their open demeanor and his careful attention to detail sug- gest that White saw them holistically. Maybe it was the nature of his relationship with individuals he met, or perhaps the novelty of his efforts appealed to them. Although we can- not know if either reason or others apply, similar paintings of the Inuit are attributed to White. Some scholars theorize that John White took part as expedition artist in Martin Wife of a chief of Pomeiooc, John White c. 1585, copyright The Trustees of the British Museum. Portrait of Arnaq and Nutaaq, John White, c. 1585, copyright The Trustees of the British Museum. 2 Frobisher’s explorations of the Canadian Arctic from 1576 to 1578. There are stylistic similarities between the portrayals of both Indian cultures. They ...

1. 1
Looking with Clearer Vision:
The Significance of John White’s Watercolors
By Lisa L. Heuvel
The watercolor drawings of John White (c. 1540 - c. 1606)
are widely recognized as priceless glimpses into the indig-
enous cultures that colonial English explorers encountered,
cultures that had existed for thousands of years. Each exist-
ing watercolor has an enduring quality: The Algonquian-
speaking men, women and children immortalized by White
move through recognizable moments of daily life. White
portrays them working, playing, and worshipping as people
of grace and power. They are at ease in a landscape that is
new to him, but an ancestral home to them.
For museums and other culturally-based institutions, White’s
images are indispensable visual evidence of the 16th- and
early 17th-century mid-Atlantic indigenous world. Some,
such as the warrior figure now identified as an Indian
werowance, or chief, are popular iconic images seen in post-
ers, books, and other modern depictions. Given their rich
content and the lack of comparable visual sources, they have
come to symbolize the Contact Era Algonquian population
of the Mid-Atlantic region.
John White sketched the American Indian peoples he en-
countered through the lens of his English culture. There are
levels of cross-cultural exchange suggested in the collabora-
tive work he created with Thomas Hariot during their ex-

2. ploration of Carolina. One tangible example appears in the
watercolor drawing of an Indian woman and her daughter,
inscribed,
“A cheife
Herowans
wyfe of Po-
meoc. | and
her daughter of the age of .8. or. | .10. years.” The girl, wear-
ing beads, carries a dressed English doll; in the later de Bry
engraving, she holds a European rattle and a similar doll.
The 1590 Theodore de Bry edition contains Hariot’s 1588
text of A briefe and true report of the new found land of
Virginia.
In it, Thomas Hariot’s caption for the de Bry engraving of
the mother and child notes that “they [Indians] are most
delighted with the dolls and little bells brought over from
England.”
Although we can only speculate about White’s level of
involvement and trust with the Indian people he portrayed,
their open demeanor and his careful attention to detail sug-
gest that White saw them holistically. Maybe it was the nature
of his relationship with individuals he met, or perhaps the
novelty of his efforts appealed to them. Although we can-
not know if either reason or others apply, similar paintings
of the Inuit are attributed to White. Some scholars theorize
that John White took part as expedition artist in Martin
Wife of a chief of Pomeiooc, John White c. 1585,
copyright The Trustees of the British Museum.
Portrait of Arnaq and Nutaaq, John White, c. 1585,
copyright The Trustees of the British Museum.

3. 2
Frobisher’s explorations of the Canadian Arctic from 1576 to
1578. There are stylistic similarities between
the portrayals of both Indian cultures. They suggest a lowering
of barriers between artist and model, as ap-
pears much later in the Indian Gallery of George Catlin (1796-
1872), which records the Plains Indians and
their way of life. Both White and Catlin make their subjects the
focus, not their art. The timeless message of
their paintings is this: Respect the people and Native cultures
they portray.
In White’s case, little remains of his life narrative. Ironically,
we have no reciprocal image of him by his peers
or the Native people who knew him, only imaginings. When
White sailed from Roanoke Island in 1587 to
secure supplies, did he stand at the ship’s railing looking back
at his daughter and his grandchild, Virginia
Dare? How did he look in England when told no ships could be
spared for his return voyage? White finally
made landfall at Roanoke Island in 1590, only to discover the
disappearance of his family and fellow colo-
nists. How would he have sketched the utter bleakness of that
scene? Only his words remain to speak of it.
But for scholars and others seeking historical clarity, the visual
impact of John White’s extraordinary vision is
within reach.
Unfortunately, many of White’s watercolors probably were lost;
but those that survive send silent messages
of a people and a way of life. The engravings which Theodore
de Bry made from now-lost works by White
are embellished, stylized, and already a step removed from their
human subjects. Yet de Bry’s detailed black

4. and white engravings illustrate the evolving study of America’s
wonders by European artists and writers.
Theodore de Bry’s 1590 edition of A briefe and true report of
the new found land of Virginia may have been his
synthesis of Hariot and White’s Virginia findings with newer
discoveries. Literary scholar Peter Stallybrass
suggests that de Bry’s work contained botanical information
from French botanist Carolus Clusius on North
American plants. In the 1590 Latin edition of de Bry’s work
now owned by The Mariners’ Museum, engrav-
ings based on White’s drawings spring from the page in vivid
European hues much brighter than White’s
originals. This change heralds the growing appropriation of
America in European thought and action dur-
ing the 17th century. In their efforts to record a natural history
of Carolina, Thomas Hariot and John White
encouraged an eager mother country waiting across the Atlantic
with a “shopping list” of commodities to fill
her needs.
But one person’s frontier is another person’s home. The
glimpses White offers into Indian lifeways say so,
over four centuries later. These Algonquian people were fully
engaged in developed societies when White
sketched them. They were mothers and fathers, sons and
daughters, descendants and ancestors, like all
people. This was their land.
John White sent that message to his peers and across time. That
is his greatest contribution.
The British Museum’s collection of John White watercolors was
exhibited in “A New World: England’s First
View of America” at Jamestown Settlement, Williamsburg,
Virginia, July 15-October 15, 2008.

5. Lisa Heuvel received a master’s degree in American Studies
from the College of William and
Mary in 2005 and is completing doctoral coursework there in
the School of Education, where
her research interests include multiculturalism and teacher
development. Heuvel’s thesis “Early
Attempts of English Mineral Exploration in North America: The
Jamestown Colony” was pub-
lished in 2007. She was assistant scholar for the 2008 Beyond
Jamestown Teachers’ Institute,
held by the Virginia Indian Heritage Program of the Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities.
©Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
P.O. Box 1607, Williamsburg, VA 23187
June 2014
www.historyisfun.org