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Renowned in her lifetime for traveling to England as a Christianized Indian, Pocahontas (1595-1617) was again celebrated two centuries later when Americans remembered their nation's colonial history. At that time she was venerated both for her baptism into the Anglican church and for saving the life of the English captain John Smith, who had emerged as an American hero shortly after the birth of the new republic. The British expatriate writer John Davis, active at the turn into the nineteenth century, was the first to embellish the story of the rescue by adding a tale of romantic love between Pocahontas and Smith. That appealing mythology would be perpetuated for the next two hundred years. Pocahontas actually married John Rolfe, not John Smith, a fact that was made known to many in 1855 by a popular engraving, published in New York, London, and Edinburgh, Henry Brueckner's "Marriage of Pocahontas." The wedding is in fact poorly documented. Brueckner invented details that no doubt were the inspiration for this jig-saw puzzle produced on Long Island; the latter takes from it elements of the setting, composition, and treatment of several figures. An inscription in pencil on the box of the puzzle provides the date 1868. The Pocahontas story has long been cherished by children. Contemporary with the puzzle, and perhaps also influenced by Brueckner's print, is The Royal Illuminated Book of Legends (Edinburgh, 1872), which presents "Pocahontas: A Tale of Old Virginie" in company with stories about King Alfred, Puss in Boots, and The Hind of the Forest.
Image rights owned by the Virginia Historical Society. |
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