Tuskegee: 1930s. When Prentice Polk enrolled at Tuskegee Institute at the age of eighteen, he had every intention of becoming a painter. The staff at Tuskegee decided that his goals were impractical, and at the advice of the Institute’s official photographer, C.M. Battey, Polk instead decided to pursue a career.....
Newburgh: Abel A. Peck, 1860s. 3 ½ x 2 ¼ albumen print on larger mount. A carte-de-visite copy of a folk art painting probably painted c. 1820s-1830s. William Seymore (1786-1846) was a Methodist minister in Bellvale, New York. Edward Ruttenber and L.H. Clark, in their 1881 History of Orange County.....
Boston: c. 1874. Albumen carte-de-visite photograph, 3 ¾ x 2 ¼ inches, on original mount with photographer’s mark to verso. Joshua Bowen Smith was a Boston-based abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad, who also owned his own catering company. Born in Philadelphia to a British father and mother of.....
Fort Ethan Allen: 1910. Gelatin silver print mounted to board, 16 ¼ x 14 ½ inches. The 10th Cavalry was one of the original “Buffalo Soldier” regiments of the post-Civil War segregated U.S. Army, first seeing action in the Indian Wars. Their band is shown here most likely during their.....
N.p. 1880s-1890s. Mounted albumen photograph on mount, 4 ¾ x 3 ¾ inches on larger mount. A striking portrait of an American Indian student in western dress, most likely a student at an American Indian boarding school or Indian Residential School, as they were also known. Verso reads, “J.H.C. /.....
Carlisle: J.N. Choate, 1880-1885. Albumen cabinet card, 8 x 4 ⅞ inches on slightly larger mount. Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded in 1879, was one of the most influential institutions of its type during its existence from 1879 to 1919. The purpose of the school - unlike some predecessors such.....
New York, et al. 1921-1934. Large heavy folio, 12 x 14 inches. 81 leaves, cloth covers with string-through binding. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Leonidas Westervelt was a New York-based playwright and theater historian who also had an interest in archaeology. This scrapbook documents his digs in the New.....
Gelatin silver print, 6 x 8.25 inches, on 8 x 10 inch mount. A striking portrait of a young part-Choctaw American Indian man in Durant, Indian Territory. The verso reads “Mr. Frank Love / Halfbreed Choctaw / Durant, IT.” Court records show that Frank Love’s father, Willis.....
Montana or Wyoming: 1900-1910. Silver gelatin photographs on thick paper mounts, photographs measuring appx. 4 x 5 inches, mounts 8 x 10. A series of photographs of Crow, taken circa 1900-1905 by an unknown photographer, possibly acquired at a Wyoming street festival. The images bear some resemblance to the work.....
Oraibi: 1898. Platinum print, 6 ¼ x 8 14 inches on 9 ¼ x 11 ½ inch sheet, titled and dated in the margin in ink. The Illinois-born photographer Adam Clark Vroman moved to California in 1892 hoping that the dry climate would provide relief for his tuberculosis. He set.....
Zuni Pueblo / Washington: 1882-1883. Albumen photograph, 7 ¼ x 9 ¼ on 8 x 10 inch mount. Frank Hamilton Cushing was an ethnologist and anthropologist who helped pioneer the practice of participant observation by living among Zuni in New Mexico. He joined James Stevenson’s anthropological expedition to New Mexico.....
Dakota Territory: 1883. An uncredited photograph taken by F. Jay Haynes. Haynes was the official photographer for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and Yellowstone National Park. Haynes took a series of pictures of the Crow in 1883, including this picture of Ashishishe. The picture was likely taken at the last.....
Wyoming: 1903. First Edition. Gelatin silver prints, most photographs roughly 4 ½ by 6 ¾ inches, with sizes varying somewhat. With handwritten notations on versos in Buffum’s hand. A series of photographs taken by the range manager Bert C. Buffum during a street parade in Sheridan, Wyoming, in October of.....
American: 1870s-1880s. 3 ½ x 2 ¾ inches. An uncommon early image of an Asian immigrant posed in front of a bakery. We find no record of a Blott St. or building besides the Blott block of Albion, New York, but the architecture and street numbers do not match the.....
Bermuda: 1918. Oblong 8vo, wraps, with 47 original gelatin silver photographs glued to an equal number of pages in two albums, each photo with short description typed on a slip of paper affixed beneath or beside the image. Images measure 4 ¼ x 2 ⅜ inches or reverse, albums are.....
Massachusetts: 1860s. 9 x 6 inches. Polished calf decorative covers. Nineteen pages, with 55 Carte-de-Visite portraits. A carte-de-visite portrait album kept by Billings during the Civil War. Notation before index reads: “This album was sent me, at my order, from Philadelphia and was received while our army lay at Brandy.....
Harpers Ferry: 1860s. First Edition. The 22nd Regiment, still in existence, was organized in April, 1861. A very good example.
1890s. 9 ½ x 7 inch photographs on 11 x 13 mounts. The first photograph captures a bearded man atop a stump, peering in the forest, with sunlight pouring through a stand of redwoods. The second shows redwood rounds loaded on a train car, with “Exelsior Redwood Co. Eureka Cal.”.....
Mostly California: Various Photographers, 1860s-1880s. First Edition. Albumen cartes-de-visite, generally 2 3⁄4 x 3 3⁄4 inches on larger mounts. The Chinese-American communities that existed prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 were mostly on the West Coast, with a few others scattered throughout the country. This collection, assembled over.....
New York? 1860s. An unusual image of a Zouave soldier in an outdoor setting, holding a horse. During the Civil War, roughly 95 Zouave regiments formed, adopting the names, uni-forms and sometimes fighting styles of the North African Zouave brigades. The bulk - about 70 of the regiments - fought.....
American: 1860s. [Women][Civil War] A Pair of Tintypes of Civil War Soldiers in Federal Uniforms, Possibly Women American, c. 1860s. Quarter plate tintypes, first measuring 2 ½ x 3 inches, second 2 ¼ by 3 ⅜ inches, both cased. Though it is known that many women - perhaps.....
Virginia City: Sutterley and Co., 1864-1867. Albumen photograph on mount, 4 x 2 ½ inches. Pauline Cushman was an actress and one of the most successful spies for the Union Army. She ingratiated herself with the Confederate army by toasting Jefferson Davis after one of her performances. She was eventually.....
1860s. A striking photograph, featured on page 89 of David Deitcher’s Dear Friends: Photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918. “Romantic friendship between American men acquired a different kind of social prestige and meaning within the Civil War. No sooner did young recruits leave the shelter and ties of home and family.....
V.p. 1960s-1970s. Thirty-three 11 x 14 images, thirteen 8 x 10 images. These photographs, likely taken by a participant in the various events but probably printed in the 1970s, encapsulate many of the iconic themes of the New Left. Most of the photographs show protesters at unidentified events, though the.....
Havana: R. Testar, 1890s. Albumen photograph on cardstock mount, image measuring 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches on 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inch mount. A view of an American warship in Havana harbor, likely taken prior to the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Spain in early.....