10

A suite of 18 cabinet cards of Native Americans from the US Geological & Geographical Survey of the Territories. Circa 1868-1876.

Albumen prints
Some of these portraits are by Alexander Gardner, but other photographers associated with this project include William Henry Jackson, C.M. Bell, Jeremiah Gurney, and many others. Most with a caption in the negative, and all on the U.S. Geological & Geographical Survey of the Territories mounts with F.V. Hayden's printed credit, all but two with the sitter and other caption information in ink in an unknown hand on mount recto and/or verso.
The images approximately 5 1/2 x 4 in. (14 x 10.2 cm.), the mounts 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. (16.5 x 10.8 cm.)

  • Notes:
    The sitters include: Two-Strike, Brula Dakota * Wa-Hu-Wa-Pa (Ear of Corn), Oglala Lakota * Gray Eagle, Apache * John Yellow Flower, Ute * Young Black Dog (Black Dog II), Osage * Semeo * Wa Co Mo * Milky Way, Commanche * Lauce * Drunken Terrapin, Creek * Little Raven, Arapaho * Jose Pocati, Yuma * Scar-faced Charley, Modoc (Chikchikam-lupalkuellatko or Wagon Scar Faced) * Antonio Jose Atencios, Pueblo (Na-na-an-ye Swaying Aspen, Former Governor) * Wagasapa or Iron Whip, Ponca * Ouray, Ute Chief * Blackfoot and his Squaw, Crow * unidentified figure (caption faded)

    A rare group of images associated with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Although the origins of this agency's Native American photographic project are obscure, this scarce group of cabinet cards appears to have grown out of both Van der Hayden and William Blackmore's abiding interest in building image collections for scholars. The collection features portraiture of male delegates to the United States with occasional images of women and children.

    Blackmore, a British financier and philanthropist, developed a unique collection for his museum in Salisbury, England, which included studio photographs and prints for publication. By the early 1870s his collection passed to the Hayden Survey. Through Hayden's influence, it was enlarged to include photographs by his own field photographer, William Henry Jackson, as well as portraits of native subjects gathered from other studios in Washington, D.C. The negatives for many of the photographs from this survey are held at the Smithsonian.
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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October 16, 2025 10:30 AM EDT
New York, NY, US

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