Overview of the Collection
Access
Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Overview of the Collection
Title: Modoc Indian War Lantern Slides
Dates (inclusive): 1872-1873
Collection Number: photCL 515
Creator:
Heller, Louis, 1839-1928;
McIntosh Stereopticon Co.;
Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904;
Putnam & Valentine
Extent:
52 lantern slides in 1 box; lantern slides 8 x 10 cm. (3 x 4 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 collection contains lantern slides with both photographs and illustrations of the 1873-1873 Modoc War, a conflict fought
in the lava beds at Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border between a small band
of Modoc Indians and the United States Army. The lantern slides include images of Indian scouts for the U.S. Army; U.S. Army
soldiers and camps, Modoc leaders and prisoners of war, and the lava beds that served as the Modocs'
stronghold. Notable images include portraits of Modoc leaders Captain Jack and Winema (Toby) Riddle, shaman Curly-headed Doctor,
and Indian scout Donald McKy. Within the collection, 26 photographs can be attributed to Eadweard
Muybridge, 13 to Louis Heller, and 2 to Putnam & Valentine.
Language: English.
Access
The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please visit the Huntington's website:
www.huntington.org.
Access to the original lantern slides is restricted. Arrangements for viewing the slides must be made in advance with the
Curator of Photographs.
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
Modoc Indian War Lantern Slides. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Provenance
Gift of Grabhorn Press in 1945.
Biographical Note
The Modoc War, also known as the Modoc Campaign and Lava Bed Wars, was a conflict between a small group of Modoc Indians,
led by Kientpoos (Captain Jack), and the United States Army that was fought in the
lava beds at Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border from November 1872 to June 1873. During the war, 53 United States soldiers,
17 civilians, and 15 Modoc warriors
were killed.
Louis Heller (1839-1928) was a freelance photographer based in northern California when he went to cover the Modoc War conflict
in April 1873. He worked independently
of Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904), the noted photographer of the conflict, who was contracted by the U.S. government.
Source:
Palmquist, Peter. "Imagemakers of the Modoc War: Louis Heller and Eadweard Muybridge."
The Journal of California Anthropology, 1977, 4(2)
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains lantern slides with both photographs and illustrations of the 1873-1873 Modoc War, a conflict fought
in the lava beds at Tule Lake on the
California-Oregon border by a small band of Modoc Indians and the United States Army. The lantern slides include images of
Indian scouts for the U.S. Army; U.S. Army
soldiers and camps, Modoc leaders and prisoners of war, and the lava beds that served as the Modocs' stronghold. Notable images
include portraits of Modoc leaders
Captain Jack and Winema (Toby) Riddle, shaman Curly-headed Doctor, and Indian scout Donald McKy. Within the collection, 26
photographs can be attributed to Eadweard
Muybridge, 13 to Louis Heller, and 2 to Putnam & Valentine.
Additional images include a Warm Spring Indian camp;
San Francisco Bulletin correspondent William McKay; Captain Jack's family; Modocs Scar-Faced Charley,
and Boston Charley; the grave sites of Boston Charley, Black Jim, Schonchin John; Modoc women; illustrations of what is possibly
the Modoc attack on the 1873 Peace
Commission; illustrations of Indians; ruins of buildings; and a wounded U.S. soldier.
Item titles in square brackets devised by cataloger. Other titles are transcribed from slide labels and some are supplied
from the titles of the original stereographs
by Muybridge and Heller.
Within the collection, there are also some unidentified images that may have been part of a lantern slide presentation but
not related to the war, including a
still-life image of California poppies (Item 51) and an unidentified scene of buildings on a rocky outpost (Item 52).
Indexing Terms
Indian interpreters -- Photographs.
Indian scouts -- Photographs.
Modoc Indians -- Photographs.
Modoc Indians—Wars, 1873 -- Photographs.
United States. Army. Infantry, 1st -- Photographs.
United States. Army. Cavalry -- Photographs.
Jack, Captain, Modoc Chief, 1873- -- Photographs.
Winema, Modoc Chieftainess, 1842-1932 -- Photographs.
Siskiyou County (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Lantern slides.
Photographs.