Revolutionary War History F. O. C. Darley Engraving of the Wyoming Massacre 1878

Iroquois Indians Revolutionary War

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Darley, F. O. C. Indian Massacre at Wilkesbarre (Valley of Wyoming), 1878, depicts a violent episode associated with the Battle of Wyoming and the Revolutionary War in northern Pennsylvania. Produced a century after the conflict, the engraving presents the Wyoming Valley fighting through the conventions of nineteenth-century American historical illustration, centering a domestic attack by Indigenous warriors allied with the British and armed settlers defending a dwelling. The image belongs to the postwar visual culture through which episodes of frontier violence, Native participation in the Revolution, and Patriot defeat were recast for later American audiences.

Indian Massacre at Wilkesbarre (Valley of Wyoming). F. O. C. Darley, 1878. Steel engraving. Image measures 4.25 x 7 inches, mounted on a 9 x 11.5 inch mat. Darley stages the encounter inside a settler dwelling at the instant of forced entry. Warriors carrying tomahawks enter through the structure while the occupants respond with an axe and long gun; one attacker lies on the floor after being struck, while another comes through the window as a settler takes aim. The compressed interior, raised weapons, and close physical confrontation transform the larger Wyoming Valley campaign into a scene of household defense and frontier violence.

The Battle of Wyoming was a Patriot defeat during the Revolutionary War in which British forces and allied Iroquois warriors fought American forces in the Wyoming Valley, a region where settler expansion had intensified conflict. Darley’s 1878 interpretation belongs to a much later period of historical image making and therefore records not the battle itself but a nineteenth-century visual rendering of Revolutionary-era frontier warfare. Very good condition overall. A detailed example of post-Civil War American historical illustration depicting one of the Revolutionary War’s most enduringly reproduced episodes of frontier conflict.

Item #20454

Price: $85.00