Florence Barclay Hyatt Photograph Collection, approximately 1860s-1924, bulk approximately 1860s-1890s

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Summary

Abstract:
This collection contains 50 photographs collected by Florence Barclay Hyatt (born 1865) including card photographs chronicling the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in southwestern South Dakota from 1890 to 1891, with images of Buffalo Bill, Captain Frank Dwight Baldwin, General Nelson Appleton Miles, and Chief Kicking Bear. Other images include nature scenes in the mid-Western United States and portraits of Hyatt's extended family members.
Extent:
1 Linear Feet (49 photographs in 1 box ; photographs 15 x 20 cm. (6 x 8 in.) and smaller + 1 daguerreotype in separate case)
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

Florence Barclay Hyatt Photograph Collection. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains 50 photographs (28 prints, 21 tintypes, and 1 daguerreotype), collected by Florence Barclay Hyatt (born 1865), who moved with her family to the Dakota Territory as a child and later ran a boarding house in Bismarck, North Dakota. The photographs include 14 card photographs chronicling the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in southwestern South Dakota from 1890 to 1891. Photographs show images of the corpses of Sioux Indians in a mass grave, Chief Hollow Wood, Chief Young Man Afraid of his Horses, council meetings amongst Sioux chiefs, the Ghost Dance, Pine Ridge Indian Agency, Indian police, the Pine Ridge Agency hospital, Indian men and women, and the remnants of Indian camps. Eight views of the mid-Western United States include Sioux Indian Red Tomahawk; Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota; the 1890 Corn Palace in Sioux City, Iowa; and various nature scenes.

The Northwestern Photographic Company created the Wounded Knee Massacre photographs (1-14). F.B. Fiske created photograph (15) of Red Tomahawk, and Brown & Wait created photograph (21) of the Corn Palace at Sioux City, Iowa.

Additionally, the collection also includes 28 Civil War era tintypes, carte-de-visites and card photographs, and one daguerreotype depicting Florence Barclay Hyatt's family members from the Askren, Johnson, Kirkpatrick, Messenger, and Ruark families. Some of the sitters have been identified while others remain unknown.

Biographical / historical:

Florence Barclay Hyatt was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1865; her mother had been a Union nurse while her father had been a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War. In 1876, Florence's family moved to the Dakota Territory; one of the first bits of news that greeted them here was of the Custer Massacre, and Florence remembered watching personally the soldiers calling on Mrs. Custer to inform her of the tragedy. Later in life, Florence married Wellington Barrington Hyatt, whose father was Aaron Hyatt, a well-known Civil War gunsmith. The Hyatts had a son whom they named Ray Hyatt. Relocating seemed to be a way of life for Florence. Throughout the years, she lived in Bismarck, North Dakota; Chadron, Nebraska; Savanna, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; and Seattle, Washington.

A significant portion of photographs chronicle the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre in southwestern South Dakota. This event stemmed from white settlers' fears of the Indian Ghost Dance, which many settlers and the United States Army saw as a war dance that encouraged physical violence. Tensions between the Sioux and the U.S. Army came to a head in December 1890, when a Sioux rifle accidently discharged, prompting the military to shoot and kill more than 250 Sioux Indians, mainly women and children.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from the Shorey Bookstore March 7, 1963.
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:

Florence Barclay Hyatt Photograph Collection. 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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