Horse Racing of Sioux Indians near Fort Pierre, plate 30 from Volume 1 of 'Travels in the Interior of North America' 1843

This print, made by Karl Bodmer, captures a Sioux horse race near Fort Pierre, and belongs to a series of images that offered Europeans a glimpse into North American life. It’s an aquatint, a printmaking technique that uses acid to etch an image onto a metal plate. The visual impact here relies on the linear precision of the etched lines. This process would have been labor-intensive, demanding the work of skilled artisans to transfer Bodmer's original drawings into a format suitable for mass production. This print served as both a document and commodity, circulated in a market hungry for depictions of the ‘exotic’ New World. But it also embodies a complex set of exchanges. The print reflects the market for such images and the realities of labor and representation. The print relies on collaborative work, from the artist in the field to the artisans in the print shop. By attending to its making, we can appreciate how intertwined the realms of art, labor, and cultural exchange really are.