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Milton R. Slater (1918-2014) of Sleepy Hollow, NY was a longtime book collector
who opened his account with Swann in 1953. Selections from his collection are noted
with the initials (MRS).
Longtime map collector and scholar Glen McLaughlin is best known for his 1995
bibliography,The Mapping of California as an Island. Selections from his collection,
many of them which include maps of California, are marked (GM).Winning bidders
may request the McLaughlin bookplate to be affixed to books from his collection.
WITH PHOTOGRAPHSTAKEN SHORTLY AFTER HER ESCAPE
1
●
(AMERICAN INDIAN CAPTIVITY.)
Family papers of Indian captive
Jeanette DeCamp Sweet.
More than 100 items in one box (0.8 linear feet), plus three
larger framed items; various sizes and conditions.
Vp, 1862-1999
[6,000/9,000]
In August 1862, the Sioux of southwestern Minnesota went on the offensive against the area’s white
settlers in what is known as the Dakota War or Sioux Outbreak. A young white woman named
Jeanette DeCamp (1833-1920) and her three young sons were captured in the attack. Several
months pregnant, she endured a forced march and, with the help of a sympathetic Indian, managed a
daring escape with her children.After a harrowing month of captivity and flight, she and her three sons
arrived back at Fort Ridgely, MN, only to learn that her husband had been killed during her absence.
A fourth son, Benjamin, was born in Missouri just weeks after her arrival. She soon remarried to
a minister, Rev. Josiah Sweet. Her memoir of the ordeal was published in the Collections of the
Minnesota Historical Society in 1894.
Offered here are the papers of Jeanette DeCamp Sweet and five generations of her descendants.The
key items are three early photographs. A tintype depicts (according to a description by her great-
granddaughter) the recently rescued Jeanette DeCamp Sweet with her baby son Benjamin in 1863.
An albumen carte-de-visite photograph by a Missouri photographer depicts her two eldest boys,
Wellington and Warren; the early caption on verso declares that it was taken “just after their release
from captivity in 1862.” Finally is a carte-de-visite of two Indians, captioned on verso “Shakopee &
Medicine Bottle, Sioux Indians.” The connection to the DeCamps is uncertain, though a modern
caption on verso asserts that “these are the good Indians who took Grandmother Sweet & her boys
down river to Fort Ridgely.”Also included are her scrapbook kept from circa 1906-16 containing sev-
eral clippings about the capture and her subsequent life; and a heavily worn volume of the Collections
of the Minnesota Historical Society, inscribed to her by the Society and containing her narrative.
The later family papers include the 1892 marriage certificates of son Benjamin E. DeCamp * an
unsigned watercolor portrait of a pipe-smoking Indian * Correspondence of Jeanette’s son and grand-
daughter in California, 1931-35 * World War II papers of her great-grandson * a genealogy book
compiled by her great-great-granddaughter in 1990 * 2 wedding photographs signed by Edward
Curtis, Los Angeles, circa 1941 * 18 other family photographs, most 19th century * a signed photo-
graph of J. Edgar Hoover dated 1942 * and much more. An important family archive of a renowned
captivity survivor.
Images of each lot can be found at
swanngalleries.com