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Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule: Finding Aid
photCL 189  
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Description
This is a collection chiefly of studio portraits of Native Americans from the Midwestern and Southwestern United States taken by photographer William S. Soule during the American Indian Wars in the late 1860s. There are also views of their homes and camps on reservations.
Background
William Stinson Soule was born in Maine in 1836. At the age of 27, he served in the Union Army during the Civil War but was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, resulting in a discharge. In 1865, Soule worked at a photographic gallery in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, before heading west to improve his health, taking his photography equipment with him. In 1869, Soule traveled to Camp Supply in Oklahoma; it was there he photographed Indian prisoners of war from the American Indian conflicts in the Great Plains. Later that same year, he traveled to Fort Sill, which served as an Indian agency and a military control headquarters for various Plains Indians. Here, Soule photographed studio portraits of members of the Plains tribes, including the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, from 1870 to 1874. Around 1874, Soule left Fort Sill and traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, where he opened and ran a photography studio until his retirement in 1902. Soule died in Boston at the age of seventy-two in 1908. Philip Hildreth Reade (1844-1919) was a Brigadier General in the United States Army and fought against the Plains Indians in the American Indian Wars in the late 1800s.
Extent
25 photographs in 2 boxes; prints 13 x 21 cm. (5 x 8 in.) and smaller.
Restrictions
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Availability
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.