An Alligator's Nest

1852

Bankruptcy and sale of the Indian Gallery

Bankrupt through debt, he is forced to sell a large part of the collection of 607 paintings (other accounts say all of it); the Philadelphia industrialist Joseph Harrison takes the paintings and artifacts as security and stores them in a factory in Philadelphia.

1852–1857

Travels in South and Central America

He travels through South and Central America and then again through the Wild West, reaching Alaska (other accounts say only the American West Coast).

1852–1872

Re-creating the lost collection

Over the last 15–20 years of his life, despite poor health and near-total deafness, he re-creates the collection, painting more than 400 pictures; based on the outlines of his 1830s works, this second set is known as the “Cartoon Collection”.

1862

The Breath of Life and a theory against mouth breathing

Drawing on his observations of Native Americans, who preferred breathing through the nose (mothers closed their babies’ mouths in sleep), he sets out in this book a theory of the harm of mouth breathing; it met with skepticism in scientific and medical circles. The book was later retitled Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Life.

1868

“Last Rambles” among the Rocky Mountains and the Andes

In London he publishes the account of his later journeys among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes, the record of his travels of the 1850s.

1870

Returns to the United States

He returns to the United States after more than three decades away (other accounts say 1871); his work still finds no buyers.