Thomas L. McKenney (American, 1785–1859) and James Hall (American, 1793–1868) collaborated on the landmark publication History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836–1844), one of the most significant nineteenth-century visual and written records of Native American leaders and cultures. McKenney, who served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the United States government, began commissioning and collecting portraits of Indigenous delegates visiting Washington, D.C., in an effort to document Native American nations during a period of rapid territorial expansion and displacement. Writer and historian James Hall contributed the biographical essays and historical texts that accompanied the images.

The publication featured hand-colored lithographs based largely on paintings by artist Charles Bird King and became widely known for its combination of portraiture, ethnographic documentation, and historical narrative. Though shaped by the perspectives and limitations of its era, the project remains an important visual record of numerous Indigenous leaders, many of whose likenesses would otherwise have been lost.