W.P. Bliss

[Dietmar]

This short biography of W.P. Bliss is from "Pioneer photographers from the Mississippi to the continental divide" by Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Stanford Univ. Press 2005, page 117/118:

Bliss, W.P. (b.c. 1840) Photographer; active Dubuque, Iowa, 1860; Topeka, Kans., 1865; Santa Fe, N.Mex., c. 1878.
W. P. Bliss was born around 1840 in Massachusetts. On June 19, 1860, he was listed in the census for Dubuque, Iowa, as a twenty-year-old male “artist” – probably a daguerreian artist. By the early 1860s, Bliss was an itinerant photographer, issuing cartes de visite with an imprint featuring a view of his “travelling car”. He was probably identical to photographer W. P. Bliss, who paid a $10 federal professional tax in Topeka, Kansas, in May 1865. He paid further occupational taxes under the partnership of Bliss and Wentworth in Topeka in November 1865. (Wentworth´s full name is unknown.) At some point in the mid- to late 1860s, Bliss´ studio was on Sixth Avenue, Topeka. Around 1878 or 1879 he arrived in Santa Fe with his “Bliss Photograph Car”. There, he reportedly issued stereographs of Fort Sill (present-day Oklahoma) Indians evidently pirated from negatives by William S. Soule. During part of his sojourn in Santa Fe, Bliss was in partnership with George Ben Wittick.

We did have some photographs of W.P. Bliss on various threads on our boards. Here are some portraits he took of Comanche men, apparently on the same occasion:


Quenatosavit (White Eagle) aka Isatai (Rear End of a Female Wolf), Comanche


Wild Horse, Comanche


unidentified Comanche Indian


unidentified "Comanche brave"


Is this portrait of Quanah from the same series?:

Quanah Parker


Questions: Are there more from this series? Who are the two unidentified Individuals?

[grahamew]

Big Tree:



That must be the earliest Quanah photo

Two Kiowa girls:



Another photo of Big Tree, which is certainly from the same series as the Quanah photo, but the backdrop is clearly different from the others:

[grahamew]

The unidentified "Comanche brave" in Dietmar's post - Heap Wolves???

[Dietmar]

This man is identified at the Kansas Memory site as "Ase-tite", Comanche:




I haven´t found any info or translation, not even in Tom Kavanagh´s books.


Regarding Heap of Wolves... still undecided.

[tkavanagh]

Isatai

[Dietmar]

Thanks. But then one of the above photos is mislabeled. The man in the first picture in this thread (White Eagle) in my opinion is another man than the one the Kansas Memory site has as Ase-tite.

[tkavanagh]

You are right, they are two different men, I jumped when I should've sat still.

I would put the former as Isatai/Quenatosavit.

That leaves the question of who is the "Ase-tite." The name as such does not occur (AFAICT) in pre-reservation documents, and there is no "Ase-tite" on any census. Of the variations Asat/Esat/Esit/Isat, there are only a few male possibilities:

Asetammy, aka Comanche John; b about 1855.
Asa/Esitoya, ‘grey mountain,’ captive; compare w/ Gardner pic
Asa/Esataiput, ‘grey infant’, bro of Tabenanaka & Pohocsucut; d. before 1885
Isatakwon, ‘liar’, b 1855

At the moment, (which could easily change) I would entertain the possibility of Esitaiput.

tk

[grahamew]

Another Bliss, the Kiowa, Frizzle Head:

[grahamew]

Southern Cheyenne woman


Comanche or Kiowa, said to be the work of WP Bliss