Unknown photographer U.S. National Museum (A&I Bldg.) Catlin Indian Gallery about 1880s Photograph from glass plate negative Neg. 78-3843 Smithsonian Institution Archives: RU 95-42-7, Photograph Collection    Until his death, Catlin pursued his dream that the U.S. government would purchase the Indian Gallery. Between 1838 and 1872, Congress considered no fewer than ten resolutions to purchase his collection, and one proposal failed by just two votes. Meanwhile, the original Indian Gallery languished in industrialist Joseph Harrison's steam boiler factory in Philadelphia, where it was stored after he acquired it in 1852. After Catlin's return to America in 1870, his friend Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian, invited him in 1872 to take a studio in a tower of the Smithsonian castle building and to exhibit his "cartoon collection," which he had been working on since 1852. Catlin died later that year. In a happy turn of events, in 1879 Harrison's widow Sarah made possible what Congress would not. Approached by Secretary Spencer Baird, Henry's successor, Mrs. Harrison gave the Indian Gallery in 1879 to the Smithsonian. The cartoon collection was returned to Catlin's daughters. Unidentified artist Sarah Poulterer Harrison about 1850 oil The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Gift of Leland Harrison