This attractive young woman looks up at the camera with her head slightly bowed, as if a bit dubious about the proceedings, but more curious than fearful. We know from the caption that she is Julia American Horse, a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe. She wears her traditional smock, tied loosely at the waist with a strip of cloth from which a frayed rope, perhaps of hair, hangs loosely. The wide sleeves are fringed with loose threads. The upper part of the frock appears to be thick, ribbed, poncho-like material, decorated with lines and figures. Julia wears her hair parted in the center and drawn back, braided into two tails that are brought forward over her shoulders and tied together with a strip of ribbon.

Julia’s portrait was taken against a plain backdrop, such as was popular in the early Native American photographs of the 1860s, but this image is much later, bearing the copyright date of 1900. The photographer was John Alvin Anderson (1869-1948), who had a studio in Rosebud South Dakota in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Listed as a photographer in the 1900 census, by 1910 John A Anderson is shown as a merchant - Indian Trader. In the year 2000 his descendants donated a waniyetu wowapi or Lakota Winter Count for a Lakota kinship group covering the period 1751-52 to 1886-87.

Here is a great photo of the Holland and McDonald hardware store, in Broken Bow Nebraska, about 1886. As we can see, mustaches were very much in style for gentlemen in the 1880s. From the signs we can see that this hardware was your ‘Headquarters for Guns, Ammunition, &c.’ and they also sold the ‘Acme Pulverizing Harrow’, ‘Studebaker Wagons’ and ‘Deering Harvesting Machinery’.

This photo was taken by Solomon Devore Butcher (1856-1927) a native of West Virginia who moved to Nebraska about 1880. Married to an Ohio girl about 1882, by 1886 the couple had two children and Solomon was tired of the hard-scrabble life of a prairie farmer, so he took up photography. Best known for his pictures of sod houses, Butcher was immortalized by Pam Conrad in her fictionalized version of his life: Prairie Visions: The Life and Times of Solomon Butcher.

Looking more like a mild-mannered accountant in costume than the fierce chief of a people known for their fighting skills, this studio portrait shows a relaxed, poised gentleman, leaning against the studio-prop railing and looking straight into the camera. His no-doubt colorful clothing is a riot of patterns and shades. Only his handy dagger gives any clue that he might be ready to defend himself and his people with the ferocious tenacity for which the Kurds are famous.

This image was taken about 1885-90 by the Abdullah brothers. Abdullah frères, as they signed their work, were three Armenian brothers — Hovsep (died 1902), Vichen (died 1900) and Kevork (1839-1918), who owned a photographic studio in Instanbul. This image may be of a Turkish Kurd taken in their studio, or may be one of the many images they purchased from other photographers and marketed. The Abdulla brothers were official ‘Photographers of the Palace’ and were given Ottoman citizenship by the sultan.

This dramatic image of the Grand Canyon was apparently taken in April of 1872, at a time when many easterners were still scoffing at the verbal descriptions of the West as gross exaggerations. Barely visible in the distance, a man is seated at the very edge of one of the upper ledges of the nearest cliff on the left. The Colorado River snakes its way far below, and disappears around a bend. As far as the eye can see are rocks, rock cliffs, rock mountains, rocky plains, with only the lone person seated in the distance giving any evidence of life.

That person is John K Hillers (1843-1925), who was to become one of the most important photographers of the American West. This photo was taken on John Wesley Powell’s second expedition through the Grand Canyon. Hillers had been hired to help row one of the boats, but he became interested in the work being done by the expedition photographer E O Beaman. In January 1872 Powell fired Beaman, and his place was taken by his assistant, James Fennemore, who took this picture. Hillers became Fennemore’s assistant and learned the mechanics of wielding the large plate camera and developing the glass negatives. By the summer of 1872 Fennemore became too ill to continue, and Hillers took over, beginning his distinguished career in photography. Some of our future posts will feature his portraits of Native Americans.

This portrait of James J Corbett (1866-1933) shows him in a boxing pose — though ‘Gentleman Jim’ was more than just a boxer. Although Corbett was the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion 1892-97, he was also college educated, an actor in film and on stage, and a boxing coach.

In 1891 the famous Irishman John L Sullivan was the heavy weight champ. But bearing the prejudice of his times (the poor immigrant Irish were often at odds with the equally poor African Americans and competing for the same jobs) Sullivan refused to fight Peter “Black Prince” Jackson because he was black. Corbett took the fight, but neither side was able to prevail, and the fight was called a draw after a grueling 61 rounds. The following year Corbett defeated Sullivan by knock-out in the 21st round.

The portrait bears the imprint of the studio of Elmer Chickering of 21 West Street in Boston Massachusetts. Although it was common to trade or sell negatives in those days, this probably was actually taken by Chickering, as it bears a mark on the negative “Copyright by E. Chickering, 6 ??? ‘96″ (the ??? is illegible but was probably the month). Also, there is a “No. 8″ on the card, suggesting it was part of a series, and indeed the Library of Congress has another image of Corbett by Chickering, apparently taken about the same time, but showing him in a uniform.