Modoc Indian War Lantern Slides: 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

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

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.

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.

Box 1

Lantern slides

This collection has been digitized in the Huntington Digital Library.

view online item

Box 1, Item 1

[Two soldiers at a United States Army camp during Modoc Indian War, 1872-73.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 2

Curly-headed Doctor.

Modoc Indian. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 3

Indians on horseback, Phoenix.

Title from label on slide. Photograph by Putnam & Valentine.

Box 1, Item 4

[A group of soldiers and Warm Spring Indian Scouts.]

Heller negative #2515. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 5

[Tents of U.S. Army camp, Modoc Indian War, 1872-73.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 6

[William McKay, the San Francisco Bulletin correspondent taking notes on the battlefield near Gen. Gillem's camp. At left are two Warm Spring Indian scouts.]

"'Our own Correspondent' in the Lava Beds."--original title of Muybridge stereograph #1631. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 7

[View of landscape and rock, possibly near lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 8

[Lava beds with United States Army tents in background.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 9

[U.S. Army soldier sitting in lava bed.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 10

Captain Jack's cave, showing Modoc fortifications on top--looking West.

Original title of Heller stereograph #2511. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 11

[Group of Warm Spring Apache Indian scouts for the U.S. Army, at Tule Lake.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 12

[U.S. Army soldiers in the lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 13

[View of U.S. Army soldier with cannon.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 14

[U.S. Army tent among the lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 15

Scar-Faced Charley.

Modoc prisoner of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 16

[Lava beds with soldiers in distance.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 17

A Modoc brave on the war path.

Original title on Muybridge stereograph #1626. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 18

On the lookout for an attack at a picket station.

Original title on Muybridge stereograph #1616. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 19

Donald McKy, the celebrated Warm Spring Indian scout, and his chief men.

Original title on Muybridge negative #1623. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 20

Shacknasty Jim's camp in the lava beds.

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 21

[Lava beds and landscape.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 22

[Lava beds and landscape.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 23

[Lava beds and landscape.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 24

[U.S. Army soldiers sitting among lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 25

[U.S. Army soldiers sitting among lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 26

Capt. Jack's cave in the Lava Beds.

Title based on caption of image in Brady, Cyrus Townsend. Northwestern Fights and Fighters (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1909), page 311. Muybridge stereograph #1602. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 27

[Detail view of cave in lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 28

Bringing in the wounded after an engagement.

Original title on Muybridge stereograph #1617. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 29

Medicine Flag Rock, where the Medicine flag floated during the three days' fight.

Original title on Heller stereograph #2512. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 30

[U.S. Army soldiers among the lava beds.]

Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 31

Panorama of Lava Beds from Signal Station at Tule Lake, Camp South.

Original title on Muybridge stereograph #1607. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 32

[Possibly artwork depicting the Modoc attack on the Peace Commission of April 11, 1873.]

Box 1, Item 33

[Possibly a reenactment of the Modoc attack on the Peace Commission of April 11, 1873.]

Box 1, Item 34

[Possibly a reenactment of the Modoc attack on the Peace Commission of April 11, 1873.]

Box 1, Item 35

[Portrait of Arteni Chokus, Posey, and One-Eyed Dixie, Interpreters, Peace Commission to Modoc Indians, 1873.]

"Arteni Chokus, Posey, One-Eyed Dixie"--slide caption. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 36

[Toby Riddle standing at center, and four other Modoc Indian women at Gillem's camp.]

"Toby, (the squaw who warned General Canby of his impending fate), and four old Modoc squaws"--title of Muybridge stereograph #1624. Photograph by Muybridge.

Box 1, Item 37

[Cross in field, possibly at a grave site.]

Box 1, Item 38

Shacknasty Jim, Hooka Jim, Steamboat Frank, Fairchild.

Modoc prisoners of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 39

Boston Charley.

Modoc prisoner of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 40

Lost River Murderers.

Modoc prisoners of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 41

Lost River Murderers: Curly-headed Jack, Wheum, Buckskin Doctor.

Modoc prisoners of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 42

[Buildings in unidentified location.]

It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not.

Box 1, Item 43

[Buildings in unidentified location.]

It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not.

Box 1, Item 44

Captain Jack's family--Lizzy (young wife), Mary (his sister), Old Wife and daughter.

Modoc prisoners of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 45

Captain Jack.

Modoc prisoner of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 46

Schonchin.

Modoc prisoner of war. Title from slide. Photograph by Heller.

Box 1, Item 47

[Artwork illustrating an Indian catching a snake.]

It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not; this image may have been part of a lantern slide presentation.

Box 1, Item 48

[Artwork of Indian man holding a tomahawk.]

It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not; this image may have been part of a lantern slide presentation.

Box 1, Item 49

[Graves of Boston Charley, Black Jim, Schonchiss, and Captain Jack. Executed October 3, 1873.]

Title based on text in image.

Box 1, Item 50

[The cemetery at Gillem's Camp, Modoc Indian War, 1872-73.]

Box 1, Item 51

[Still life of California poppies.]

It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not; this image may have been part of a lantern slide presentation.

Box 1, Item 52

[Unidentified scene of buildings on a rock outpost.]

Damaged. "Made specially in Great Britain for the McIntosh Stereopticon Co., Chicago, Ill."--text of slide label. It is unclear if this slide is related to the war or not.