Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Michelle Sanchez.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
© 2012
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.


Overview of the Collection

Title: Philip Reade Collection of Native American Photographs by William S. Soule
Dates (inclusive): 1867-approximately 1900
Bulk dates: 1867-1869
Collection Number: photCL 189
Creator: Miller, Fred E., 1868-1936; -- Photographs. Soule, William S. (William Stinson), 1836-1908 -- Photographs.
Extent: 25 photographs in 2 boxes; prints 13 x 21 cm. (5 x 8 in.) and smaller.
Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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.
Language: English.

Access

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Administrative Information

Publication Rights

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.

Provenance

Gift of Philip Hildreth Reade, date unknown.

Biographical Note of William S. Soule

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.

Biographical Note of Philip Reade

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.

Scope and Content of Collection

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).

Alternative Form of Materials Available

Visit the Huntington Digital Library: United States Civil War   to view digitized items from this collection.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  
Arapaho Indians -- Photographs.
Cheyenne Indians -- Photographs.
Comanche Indians -- Photographs.
Crow Indians -- Photographs.
Indian reservations -- Photographs.
Indian scouts -- Photographs.
Indians of North America—Great Plains -- Photographs.
Kiowa Indians -- Photographs.
Osage Indians -- Photographs.
Tipis -- Photographs.
Wichita Indians -- Photographs.
Lone Wolf, Kiowa Indian -- Photographs.
Satank, Kiowa Chief, 1810-1871 -- Photographs.
Stumbling Bear, Kiowa chief -- Photographs.
Colorado -- Photographs.
Indian Territory -- Photographs.
Kansas -- Photographs.
Llano Estacado -- Photographs.
Montana -- Photographs.
Oklahoma -- Photographs.
Texas -- Photographs.
Photographs.
Portraits.


 

Photographs

Note

Original captions from the backs of the photographs are given below. Additional information for some images was found in Wilbur Sturtevant Nye’s Plains Indian Raiders and Russell E. Belous’ Will Soule: Indian Photographer: 1869-74, as indicated below.
Box 1

Photographs 1-12

Item 1

Osage scouts employed by Gen. Alfred T. Sully (Lt. Col. 3rd Infantry), campaign of 1867-1868.

Item 2

Yellow Bear, the most intelligent and soldierly Indian chief under Little Raven—Kiowa. [(Nye): Yellow Bear was an Arapahoe]

Item 3

Indian encampment between Camp Supply and the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) of Texas, 1868. [Arapahoe]

Item 4

A rare and beautiful view taken near the Canadian River, I.T. [Indian Territory], fall of 1868 of an Indian encampment. [(Belous): Kiowa camp near the Canadian River, 1869. Kicking Bird died here in 1875.]

Item 5

Tosh-a-way, a Comanche chief. 1868. [(Belous): Tosh-a-wah (Toshaway, Tosawi, Silver Brooch). First chief of the Penateka Comanches and known for his peaceful attitude.]

Item 6

Quo-opah, or “Lone Wolf,” Kiowa chief. *(Nye): Gui-pah-go]

Item 7

Tar-low, a Wichita Indian child. Son of a Wichita chief. 1868. [(Belous): Lone Bear (Tar-lo): dressed as a Kiowa boy]

Item 8

Asa-ton-yeh, a Comanche chief. 1868. [(Nye): Asa-Toyet. He was an “agency” Indian, authorized to interact with Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government; (Belous): Esa-tou-yett (Asa- Toyeh, Grey Leggings)]

Item 9

Pai-talyi, or “Son-of-the-Sun”. Borrowed the full dress coat of Maj. Gen. W. S. Hancock, 1867, to have his photo taken in. [Kiowa]

Item 10

Wap-pah, Morn-me, and Qua-moth-kee. Comanche prisoners captured on the Staked Plains of Texas near Adobe Walls in 1868.

Item 11

Arapahoe camp near Camp Supply, Indian Territory. 1869. [(Belous): Indian encampment, 1868]

Item 12

Cheyenne brave, his squaw, and papoose. View taken in the Bow-and-Arrow period of the Western Plains, 1868.

Box 2

Photographs 13-25

Item 13

How the Cheyenne Indians dried strips of buffalo meat for winter use, 1867. [(Belous): Cheyenne camp, 1867]

Item 14

Walk-u-bella, an Arapahoe chief and members of his band, 1868. [(Belous): Four Braves. Probably at Camp Supply]

Item 15

An Indian family of three: brave, squaw, and child, 1868.

Item 16

Between the 14th and 25th of September 1868. On the Arickaree fork of the Republican River, Kansas and Colorado. Lieut. Fred H. Beecher, 3rd U.S. Infantry and Surgeon John S. Morers were killed, also four citizen scouts killed. [Photo is actually of unnamed Native American scout]

Item 17

A dismantled Indian teepee [tipi], 1868. [(Belouse): Indian camp, 1869]

Item 18

Arapahoe chief with full dress uniform hat as worn by the 3rd U.S. Infantry, with squaw and papoose, 1868.

Item 19

Three Wichita squaws, Indian Territory, 1868. [Left to right: Nawatry, Dudu, Ske-Zitz]

Item 20

Stumbling Bear, a Kiowa chief wearing Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s full dress coat and shoulder straps, 1867. [Taken near Fort Dodge, Kansas]. [(Nye): Set-imkia]

Item 21

Santank [Satank], medicine man of the noted chief Satana, Kiowa war chief, and Big Tree, leaders in the Indian campaign of 1867-1868. [(Nye): Set-angya (Sitting Bear)]

Item 22

A Wichita Indian belle, 1868. [Named Nawatry]

Item 23

Indian belle, no. 2, 1868.

Item 24

Plains Indian. Fred Miller, photographer. [Reade mistakenly noted the subject was a Chiricahua Native American]

Item 25

Crow Indians of northern Montana territory. Fred Miller, photographer.