(AMERICAN INDIANS.) Thomas McKenney and James Hall. History of the Indian Tribes of North America. 120 hand-colored lithograph plates plus a hand-colored dedication leaf. iv, 333; xvii, 9-290; iv, 18-392 pages. 3 volumes. Imperial 8vo, contemporary ½ Niger over marbled boards; intermittent foxing to text leaves, minimal foxing to plates, minimal dampstaining, minor wear to frontispieces, plate facing III:119 slightly cropped and laid down in later mat; all edges gilt; early inscriptions by the Rossiter Scott family of Maryland on first flyleaf, modern bookplates on front pastedowns. Philadelphia: J.T. Bowen, 1848, 1849, 1850 First octavo edition, with textual additions. McKenney compiled this work after serving as the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs through 1830. It features lithographs after the work of Charles Bird King, who had been commissioned by McKenney to paint portraits of American Indian delegates visiting Washington from 1821 to 1830. "The most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed"--Howes M129 ("b"). "The grandest color plate book issued in the United States up to the time of its publication, and one of the most important of the century"--Reese, American Color Plate Books 24.