Signing of the Canandaigua Treaty Painting by Robert Griffing Since the signing of the seminal 18th century Canandaigua Treaty, only a few written descriptions remain of what must have been a sight to behold during the Autumn of 1794. The rest has been left up to the imagination. That is, until now.
On Thursday, November 11, 2010, during a commemoration day filled with ceremony, a massive 6’x9’ oil painting by artist Robert Griffing capturing the scene of the historical treaty was unveiled in an emotional and educational presentation. Speaking from the stage at the Canandaigua Primary School, Griffing talked about the project’s multi-year process and some of its inherent challenges. These included gathering re-enactors in historically-correct dress to pose for a photograph on which the painting would be based, as well as the usual Western New York weather issues.
Griffing also stressed the importance of using real faces, the “inheritors” of the treaty in the painting, and cited the tremendous assistance of Ganondagan Site interpreter Michael Galban, who then took the stage. To prepare for this photograph, Galban compiled a massive amount of information about the treaty and the events contemporary to the time period. More than a thousand were in attendance at the time of the original Treaty event, including those from the Six Nations (Haudenosaunee), families, Chiefs, and important Native leaders, as well as representatives of the United States government and four Quaker individuals. “Of the three Quakers who recorded the event, William Savery’s journal would prove the most descriptive and helpful,” said Galban. “I decided to use his journal as the focus for our impression of the treaty.” Galban sent out open casting calls for the “faces behind the history.” Thirty individuals posed in two photo shoots: one for the Native re-enactors and one for those representing the Europeans. Some even flew in from out-of-town, including the model for Colonel Timothy Pickering, George Washington’s official agent at the negotiations.
At the unveiling, Linda Lovejoy from Wegmans Food Markets announced its collaboration with Ganondagan and Griffing to capitalize on the New York State fourth-grade Native American history curriculum and the Wegmans fourth-grade “Eat Well, Live Well” store tours. During the last school year, more than 17,000 students participated in the tour. To help document and preserve this important piece of living history, Wegmans will be providing posters and an upcoming educational DVD by filmmaker Denver Miller to each of more than 420 fourth-grade classes participating in this year’s store tours. The DVD is being produced in conjunction with the production of the painting. It profiles all participants, provides important historical information about the Treaty, features interviews of prominent Haudenosaunee leaders, and captures footage of the 2010 commemoration.
Posters of the painting will be available to the general public through the Ganondagan website and at its giftshop, as well as in a half dozen select Wegmans stores. All proceeds will benefit Friends of Ganondagan—the educational arm of Ganondagan State Historic Site—which organizes the annual Treaty day. The Canandaigua Treaty brought about peace between the Six Nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) and the U.S., and was negotiated and signed by sachems representing the Grand Council of the Six Nations and Colonel Pickering. It also acknowledges the sovereignty of the Six Nations to govern and set laws as individual nations. This yearly commemoration is a time of rededication of the agreement, helping to ensure that the “chain of friendship” and agreements between nations remain current and vibrant. Robert Griffing graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and after a 30-year career in commercial art, returned to the subject of his early fascination, painting the Eastern Woodland Indian of the 18th century. His work draws attention to a neglected area of the nation’s history, when one culture was being supplanted by another, and great changes were initiated that set the scene for the next 100 years of settlement. Back to FingerLakes1.com Homepage
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Thanks to Wegmans, Ganondagan and the artist Robert Griffing
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