Cowans photo inquiry

[grahamew]

There's a background in the new set of Cowans' photos that I've seen in other pictures where the photographer has been identified as belonging to Hamilton or Jackson or Cross. Can anyone tell me which one and the period of the photographer's work it belongs to.

Here's the Cowans' reference: www.cowanauctions.com/upcoming_dates_view_item.asp?ItemId=60363&AuctionName=

Here's another example of the backdrop:

[grahamew]

Okay, here's another one. Below, from nebraskahistory.org is a "Stereoview portrait of Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf, leader of the Cheyenne Outbreak, 1878-79. Photographed by Mitchell, McGowan & Company, Omaha, Nebraska, 1877.


In the Cowans photos is a picture of Grey Cloud, a Lakota chief (http://www.cowanauctions.com/upcoming_dates_view_item.asp?ItemId=60514&AuctionName=), credited to W H Masters. Don't they look as if they have same background? What struck me first, however, is that the ill-fitting new hat looks similar in both photos, as if they'd just been acquired from the same batch for the session.



Edit - Actually, now I see them together, I'm not convinced about the hats. They're new, presumably acquired just before (if not for) the photo seesion, and they don't fit, but that's about all!

[ephriam]

Graham:

The D. S. Mitchell photograph you posted is not of Little Wolf but of Iron Crow (Kangi Maza), a headman of one of the non-agency bands of Oglala who surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency with Crazy Horse in May 1877. The original stereoview is in the John G. Bourke Collection at the Nebraska State Historical Society and is properly labeled. However did the NSHS website however mixed several of the images up when they posted them.

I do not think the Grey Cloud photo is one of D. S. Mitchell's views. I can see no evidence of a backdrop in the Grey Cloud portrait. However, in D. S. Mitchell's series of Indian views, you see either his well known painted canvas backdrop or one with a blanket, in which you can see the stripe. In several photographs, you can see the edge of the blanket over the painted mural, indicating that part way through his photography series, he tried to obscure his fancy victorian portrait backdrop.

Also, notice that in the portrait of Grey Cloud, there is another individual sitting next to him (we catch just his elbow in a jacket; a white man?). Photographer James Hamilton, according to his son, used this as a technique to get reluctant natives to sit for their portrait, by having a white man sit next to them. Could that be happening here? None of D.S. Mitchell's portraits however have another individual seated next to his subject.

I have no idea who Grey Cloud is. Sometimes the Lakota word for grey is also translated as White. There are a couple of Oglala named White Cloud during the 1870s and 1880s era. Might also be Northern Cheyenne or Arapaho (certainly not Shoshone).

I am not aware of any other native photographs by Masters. He established his studio in Cheyenne in 1874. I have not been able to find yet when he closed his studio.

ephriam

[ephriam]

Regarding the first photograph, I have scans of perhaps 6 or 7 portraits with this backdrop, none of which shows a photographer imprint. So far, those images that are identified have all been Brule, so it is possible that they could be Cross portraits. But I am not certain.

I will say however that the date of these photographs is not 1875 as recorded on Cowan, most probably closer to 1880 or after. I would love to know who the photographer is!

Graham: didn't we discuss these backdrops a year or two ago, either here on this board or on the Material Culture board?

ephriam

[grahamew]

Not me, but thanks for the information. The only other photo I can find with this backdrop is a stereoview of a woman, but I think I've seen one more and saved it somewhere.

Thanks also for the info about Grey Cloud and Iron Crow. I knew it wasn't Little Wolf but I couldn't remember who you'd said it was when discussion of that photo came up before. I see the blanket strip, but to be honest, it was that ill fitting hat that made me think of the photo in the Bourke collection!

[grahamew]

I found the other photos that I have with that backdrop. I guess you're familiar with them, but here they are anyway. Neither have names, although the man bears a resemblance to a photo of a "Flat Nose John", a Brule, that I copied from some site.

[grahamew]

This image is described on Cowans as: "Important Quarter Plate Ambrotype of Minnesota Sioux and Interpreter, anonymous image housed in a full leather case, ca. early 1860s. An important, but unfortunately, unidentified image showing a line of men, believed to be Minnesota Sioux. Standing in the foreground, an Indian interpreter, dressed in white man's clothing, hold's a long-stemmed catlinite pipe. It is tempting to suggest that this image may be related to the Minnesota Sioux uprising of 1862."

Anyone want to suggest otherwise? It's a curious image; the first few figures at the left of the photo are wearing traditional dress - ceratinly of a style not generally seen in photographs of the Santee; then are some wearing some kind of uniform complete with hats, followed by another section in traditional dress.

Is the man third from the left Good Hawk, as photographed by Gardner in 1872? Not sure.

[Dietmar]

Grahame,
I´m sure above is Flat Nose John... the other reference photo you speak of is a W.R. Cross one, if it´s the same I have.

Very keen eye, I agree it must be Good Hawk, look at the same kind of war-shirt in both photographs.

Greetz

Dietmar

[grahamew]

Wearing an army jacket and holding a cap, sitting against a blanket? What I find interesting about that is that he looks older than he is in the photo above; if Ephriam's right about the other photos being dated to the mid-80s, where does that leave this photo? Most of the Cross photos with this basic backdrop seem to be earlier.

As to Good Hawk, if it is him in the Cowans photo, I wonder what he occasion is...

[grahamew]

Re: the first post - here are the relevant photos from the Cowans site:


Silver Gelatin Print of Unidentified Lakota Man, 4" x 3.25", early 1870s.



Spotted Tail's daughter, 1875; photo by Cross - maybe.