Sixteen Real Photo Postcards of the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.
United States: S.H. Kress & Co., Hixson Photo, and others, c. 1900s–1950s. Sixteen real photo postcards with six completed. Excellent. Item #List3427
A collection of sixteen real photo postcards showing the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. Chilocco opened in 1884 in what was then Cherokee land in Indian Territory, and is now Newkirk, Oklahoma. Its early students were Cheyenne, Arapaho, Wichita, Comanche, and Pawnee; after 1910, Cherokee students began attending the school as well. Like other residential schools, it was run in the style of a military school, but focused on vocational training and manual and domestic labor. In the 1930s, its curriculum was reformed to have a greater focus on academics. It closed in 1980.
The postcards include shots of grounds and building exteriors; some interiors, especially the school’s newspaper office; a performance of “Hiawatha” (probably Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s The Song of Hiawatha), where students in traditional dress pose with tipis and a canoe; “Indian Students At Chiloco In Native Costume”, showing a boy and a girl posing; and “Battalion and Band Inspection”, showing groups of uniformed students in marching formation. One interesting shot shows band practice in the chapel, which has large woven tapestries on the wall, including one that appears to show a cross.
Four of the completed cards were mailed from “Polly” to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.W.T. Andem of Milton, Massachusetts. These are likely from the 1940s to 1950s. Mr. Andem seems to have been a student at Chilocco; Polly writes:
“We were greeted royally at Chiloco. [...] One of the teachers was there so I showed him your map and he tried to locate old buildings for me. My, how the place has changed! You’d never recognize it. There are dozens of stone buildings. The place looks like a college campus. I don’t know whether my pictures will mean anything to you or not. [...] Does it look familiar? They were all interested in your map. Some thought the water tower had been moved and others said it hadn’t.”
Of interest to historians of US residential schools.
Price: $450.00