Photographs and Negatives Showing the Lakota Interpreter John Shangreaux and Unidentified Japanese Performers in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
Unknown location: 1890s. Seven items: two 6.5 x 8.5” prints, one sepia and one black and white; the latter with Brown Brothers stamp verso; some chipping at edges, fingerprint on one figure possibly on negative, very good. One 4 x 5” print and 4 x 6” negative in folder labeled “John Shangrue”; one 3.5 x 5” print and two 4 x 6” negatives in folder labeled “Tokai acrobat”; fine. Overall excellent. Item #List2714
Four photographs and three negatives of various members of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. These likely date between 1891 and 1897: one portrait is labeled on its folder “John Shangrue Interpreter of Mexican Cow-boys”, probably referring to John Shangreaux, who was an interpreter for the Lakotas who toured with Cody. Shangreaux joined the show after witnessing the Wounded Knee massacre, and toured with it until about 1897.[1] A second set of photos are labeled “Tokai acrobat”; the two different negatives are labeled “Jap” and “Japanese”. The printed negative is a portrait of a young person in a turban, and the unprinted negative shows them in a contortionist pose. This may be Touyo Kichi, the “Japanese assistant” to “a group of the most artistic and skillful Arab” gymnasts, mentioned in an 1894 New York Times article.[2] Finally, there are two prints of a group of people standing around several horses; one print reads verso “Sid Dickerman looks over some prospective swaps”. It is unclear who Sid Dickerman was; given that he is probably one of the two men examining the horses’ teeth, he might have been an assistant who did not have a role in the show itself.
[1] “Shangreaux, John, c. 1854–1926”, The William F. Cody Archive, accessed November 21, 2024, https://codyarchive.org/life/wfc.person.html#shangreaux.j.
[2] “The Greatest Summer Show | Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Its Many Features that Please and Instruct,” New York Times, September 9, 1894, https://codyarchive.org/texts/wfc.nsp01552.html.
Price: $950.00