The Marriage of Pocahontas: Creating an American Myth
Our 2026 Burke Intern, Lillian Steinhaus, spent part of her summer here at the Alice taking a deep dive into "The Marriage of Pocahontas," an 1855 engraving by John McRae after a painting by Henry Brueckner. As Lillian learned, this mid-19th century depiction of the 1614 marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe has a lot to tell us about what Americans at that time thought about their own past and the role of Native Americans in United States history. The Artist John McRae was born in Scotland...