Baker and Johnston

[grahamew]

What do we know about Baker and Johnston?

Charles S. Baker, born in New York, had a life of adventure (aboard whaling ships, on a journey to Asia and fighting in the Civil War, where he was wounded at Bull Run). According to www.wyominggenealogy.com/uinta/further_history_of_evanston.htm he and Eli Johnson/Johnston established the photographic car on the Union Pacific where they took many photos in the American west. In 1878, he opened a studio in Evanston, Wyoming where, in partnership with Johnson, he took many photos of Arapaho and Shoshone life. In 1892, he opened another studio in Lander, Wyoming. There is also a series of photographs taken in the southwest of Apaches to their names, although some that turn up on auction sites seem to be by other photographers and were, presumably, merely marketed by Baker and Johnston. If, when and where they took their own Apache photos, I'm not sure about the time-frame, unless they realised the Apaches were a hot news subject and travelled south only to return later.

Dates for Baker and Johnston photos of Arapaho and Shoshone people are often all over the place, the one I've seen used frequently is 1885, perhaps only because it's a ballpark guess.


54. Bill Friday, Arapaho


17. Wyka, Shoshone


39. Sharp Nose, Arapaho


White Brave, Shoshone. Is this 25. Kwisikent?


14. Naroce - Shoshone Warior with Tomahawk? Leaping Panther?


51. Arapaho camp?


51. Arapaho camp?


40.  Indian school children? Mission school  for Arapaho and Shoshone children


Arapaho agency?


53. Sharp Nose's boys


21.  Grandson of Chief Washakie


2. Washakie standing


41. Painting Horse, sister etc = Grey Eyes (?) Painting Horse's sister and Painting Horse, Arapaho


24. Windeah, Shoshone


38.  Painting Horse, Coolidge (named after Charles A. Coolidge, a captain at Fort Russell) and Black Coal


Grey Eyes, Arapaho


44. Six Feathers, Arapaho


Arapaho boy??


20. Taboonggwesha (Rabbit Tail), Shoshone


55. Weesizeeneet, Arapaho - but surely a Shoshone, from what he's wearing and his hairstyle


44. Six Feathers - see above


45.  Young Calf


Wind River schoolchildren - 40. Indian schoolchildren???


Arapaho (?) women???


Shoshone warrior - 25. Kwisikent???


Otah (Oiti?) Washakie and Pappagoit 


1. Washakie sitting?


11. Group of Shoshone women


15. Shoshone warriors? I've also seen this labelled second chief of the Shoshones so it could be 7. Oiti, second chief of Shoshones


8.  Oiti and Pappagoit


Washakie, Tiger and Oiti (Outah)



6.  Washakie and tipis


Assuming they are ALL Baker and Johnston, the top right one isn't one of the numbered photos


Washakie leading a dance at Fort Hall - supposedly 1892 - 18. Shoshone war dance?

[grahamew]

Some more:


36.  Black Coal with headdress


37.  Black Coal plain


56.  Arapaho kneeling with gun


43. Arapaho "Tuff"


52. Buffalo Wallow


Goes Up The Hill


Goes Up the Hill


Goes Up The Hill (not convinced this is the same man in the photos above...) The backdrop looks like the one from the Arapaho boy photo. I wonder if this is a later image as the boy seems to be wearing the kind of beaded vest seen in photos of Lakotas from the 1ate 1880s and beyond.


50. Painting Horse


10. Codsiogo (Cadzi Cody - famous for his hide paintings of Shoshone life)


19. Moragootch, Shoshone


1.  Washakie siiting


4.  Washakie and chiefs
According to Denver Public Library: Studio portrait (standing and sitting) of Mah-tov-is, Dick Washakie, Lo-po-gun (Many bows and arrows), Washakie (Rattle fox), Pau-zook (Otter), Gigee, and Peh-goos-sa (Fur leggings),


3.  Washakie in council


5. Washakie and tent


Shoshone woman (also in group photo in first post)


12. Shoshone woman with elk teeth ornaments (Julia Gerry)


Shoshone (?) woman  I wonder if this 46. Sioux woman...?


13. Shoshone woman carrying child


14.  Naroce, Shoshone warrior with tomahawk?


9. Peran - Sun Dance costume


16.  Gorasimp


Naroce and Codsiogo - is this 15. Shoshone warriors???


Shoshone woman with child (or Arapaho woman with child wearing Shoshone leggings)

[allenc]

thanks for collecting these!

[jones]

Bill Friday (top photo) was Friday's son
Here's a photo of Friday taken by Antonio Zen Shindler in 1869
denverartmuseum.org/object/1991.258.132

Bill Friday (Friday's son)
books.google.com/books?id=nQ8ao7QJhnkC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=true

How the Arapaho boy got named Friday
books.google.com/books?id=nQ8ao7QJhnkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=true

Bill Friday, Sharp Nose and other Arapaho scouts
books.google.com/books?id=nQ8ao7QJhnkC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61#v=onepage&q&f=true

[jones]

This following link says the photo of Friday was taken in St. Louis by John H Fitzgibbon in 1851-52. It is among the photos in Antonio Zeno Shindler's collection in the Smithsonian, many of which were taken by various photographers. The Denver Art Museum gives credit to Fitzgibbon as well.
books.google.com/books?id=-eXtnQSClncC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86#v=onepage&q&f=true

[Dietmar]

Thanks for all the photos, Grahame.

I wonder if this picture shows Chief Tendoy in the center rather than Oiti:

[grahamew]

Shoshone dance:

[grahamew]

[cheyennechild]

Dear Graham,  the photo between your numbers 12 and 13 photos is most likely my Grandmother's grandmother who was known as Cheyenne Belle.   Attached is the national archive photo of her and Ada Bent and a second photo with other family members.  

Thank you for posting this series of photos.  

Néá'eše Thank you

Attachments:

[grahamew]

Jun 22, 2019 12:35:57 GMT -5 cheyennechild said:

Dear Graham,  the photo between your numbers 12 and 13 photos is most likely my Grandmother's grandmother who was known as Cheyenne Belle.   Attached is the national archive photo of her and Ada Bent and a second photo with other family members.  

Thank you for posting this series of photos.  

Néá'eše Thank you

Hi. Thanks for posting this. As I'm sure you know, your top photo, was taken by Cosand and Mosser probably at Fort Reno, Indian Territory (late 1870s-early 1880s). The photo I posted certainly looks like her, so perhaps she was among Little Chief or Black Wolf's people who left Darlington and moved back north in 1881 to settle at (at least for a while) Pine Ridge. Presumably the Baker and Johnson photo was taken when she and her family were visiting Arapaho friends at Wind River.

[grahamew]

The usual version


The lesser-known version

[grahamew]

Sharp Nose variant on the one posted up thread


Two young Arapaho men


Oiti, second chief of the Shoshone


Sharp Nose, the Victorian dandy. Not sure about this one; the backdrop doesn't look familiar

[grahamew]

Painting Horse's sister:

[pmcjones]

This is a wonderful collection of photographs. Just a small footnote on the Johnston of "Baker & Johnston". I believe he was actually William James Johnston, who was born in Portsmouth, Ontario, Canada in 1856 and died in 1941 (also in Canada). He's listed in the US Census as a photographer in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, in 1880 and 1900, and later patented a panoramic camera (the Cirkut). I have two Baker & Johnston cabinet cards that help to support this theory: one is portrays a young woman of European extraction; on the back is written "Mother Rickard. Will Johnston was her brother - a photographer and the inventor of the panoramic camera". The second portrays three young boys, who I believe are the children of "Mother Rickard". The "Baker & Johnston" logo on the first photo does not include a location, but I believe it was Ontario; the logo on the second photo includes the words "EVANSTON", "ROCK SPRINGS", and "WYO." (I think it was taken when Johnston returned to Canada in 1888 to get married.) There's more information about Johnston here: www.tbeths.com/pdf/panoramicphoto_2021.pdf, and that article cites an article in the May-June 2010 issue of Photographic Canadiana magazine that I haven't been able to locate yet.

By the way, the 1880 US Census also shows a different person named Eli Johnson (not Johnston). He was born about 1860 in New York of Swedish parents, and in 1880 was living in Evanston, Uinta County, Wyoming. His profession was listed as photographer, so it's understandable that there would be confusion. Or possibly he also worked for Baker, but was not a partner.