Reverend Berry Edmiston Collection of Photographs of Apache Peoples photCL 623
Suzanne Oatey
The Huntington Library
October 2021
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library Photo Archives
Title: Reverend Berry Edmiston collection of photographs of Apache peoples
Identifier/Call Number: photCL 623
Physical Description:
1.33 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Date: approximately 1890s
Abstract: A collection of 45 photographs (glass
plate negatives, lantern slides, and copy prints) of Apache peoples and some U.S. Army
soldiers in Arizona, approximately 1899. The Apache are seen with baskets, in family groups,
posed with rifles, riding horses, and in lines at federal agency buildings.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information. Box 2: Items are fragile; available with
approval from Curator of Photography.
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.
[Identification of item]. Reverend Berry Edmiston collection of photographs of Apache
peoples, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Joe Edmiston, January 2020.
Reverend Berry (James Littleberry) Edmiston was born in 1831 in Lincoln County, Tennessee.
In 1861, he married Ednah Lee, and they both graduated from Adrian College, Maryland in
1866. In 1869, he became pastor of the Swedenborgian Society church in Henry, Illinois. The
Edmistons moved to Riverside, California in 1878 and settled on a ranch. Edmiston became
pastor of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) Church of Riverside in 1885; he died in
1912.
A collection of 45 photographs (glass plate negatives, lantern slides, and copy prints) of
Chiricahua? Apache people at an encampment in Arizona, approximately 1899. Images include
Apache men, women, and children in a line outside a federal agency building in San Carlos,
Arizona; a woman and man displaying baskets; Apache men standing in a line next to a U.S.
Army soldier; brush huts and adobe buildings; Apache men riding horses and holding guns
(probably scouts). Three images show Apache men and a boy in poses for the Devil Dance,
wearing headdresses, masks, and blankets, and holding weapons. One group portrait depicts
Native American and Anglo men and women posed together. There are also five copy photographs
of the collector, Reverend Berry Edmiston, and his wife Ednah Lee Edmiston, seen in youth
and in old age, including one image of them standing outside their Riverside, California
home, approximately 1890s. Box 1 contains copy prints of all the glass plate negatives, and
17 of 30 lantern slides. Some lantern slides are duplicates of the glass plate images.
Date estimate based on two of the same images in the collection of the Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division, Lot 12768 (4), credited to photographer K.T. (Katherine
Taylor) Dodge, copyright March 8, 1899. It is not clear if Dodge took all of the photographs
in this collection.
Processed by Suzanne Oatey in October 2021.
Arranged by format: Box 1. Copy prints; Box 2. Glass plate negatives and lantern
slides.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Apache Indians -- Arizona
Apache Indians -- Arizona -- Government relations
Arizona -- History -- To 1912
Indian baskets -- Southwest, New
Indians of North America --
Arizona
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New
San Carlos Indian Reservation
(Ariz.)
Glass plate negatives
Lantern slides
Photographs
Dodge, K. T.
(Katherine Taylor)
Box 1
Box 2
Glass plate negatives and lantern slides
Contains 15 glass plate negatives and 30 lantern slides, some of which are duplicates.
Thirteen slides (27-39) do not have corresponding copy prints. They are primarily views
of Native Americans on horses (possibly scouts) and desert scenery.
Items are fragile; available with approval from Curator of Photography.