Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule, 1867-approximately 1900, bulk 1867-1869

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Summary

Abstract:
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.
Extent:
3.08 Linear Feet (25 photographs in 2 boxes; prints 13 x 21 cm. (5 x 8 in.) and smaller.)
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

The photographs in this collection depict members of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa, Osage, and Wichita tribes during the American Indian Wars; Native American camp sites on Indian reservations; chieftains; a medicine man; native prisoners of war; native women and children; braves and their families; tipis; native families; and native scouts for the U.S. army. Notable portraits include Lone Wolf, Satank, Chief Stumbling Bear, and Chief Powder Face. William S. Soule is the photographer of the first 23 photographs (taken ca. 1867-1869), and Fred Miller is the photographer of the last two (taken ca. 1900).

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Philip Hildreth Reade, date unknown.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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