Sydney Prior Hall

[grahamew]

Prior Hall was a British illustrator and artist active in the Victorian and Edwardian era. He accompanied the Marquis of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, through a tour of the 'dominion' and made several illustrations along the way.


Pow-wow at the Garden River Reserve (Ketegaunseebee Ojibwe)



Chiefs waiting at the Garden River Reserve wharf


Crowfoot and band leaders in council


Pow-wow at Blackfeet Crossing, 10 September 1881, which was later turned into this, with a more heroic (or perhaps elegaic)-looking Crowfoot:


Crowfoot Addressing the Marquis of Lorne


Prior Hall's key


Chippewa dancing a Sioux dance for Lorne, Rat Portage, 30 July, 1881


White Cap, Dakota, 1881 - either dressed in his best or the material culture of his band had deteriorated rapidly by the time he was photographed after the Riel Rebellion in 1885


Little Crow and White Cap, Dakota, 1881


Waywaysacapo, Salteaux - sketched at Fort Ellice, and his mark, August 13, 1881


Buffalo Dance at Fort Qu'Appelle and Dr McGregor at Fort MacLeod, November, 1881


Poundmaker watches as one of the last buffalo in Canada is killed - though labelled elsewhere as 'A buffalo hunt in the Red River Valley, the Coup de grace, In the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, X, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 626, November 26, 1881'


Piegan Blackfeet crossing a river, in the great North West with the Marquis of Lorne (John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll), Canada; illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXV, no 635


... and the original sketch. I would venture to suggest there's enough detail in the published version missing from this one to hint that there are some more sketches used as its basis


An Indian war-dance, To the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, V, the Voyage to Quebec, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 615, September 10, 1881.


An Indian mother on horseback with her child, to the great North West with the Marquis of Lorne (John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll), Canada, drawing by Sydney Prior Hall, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXV, no 634, January 21, 1882


Attempts to civilise and Christianise red Indian, In the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, XIV, Sketches from Quebec by Mr Sydney P Hall, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 630, December 24, 1881


Standing Buffalo (the Younger) at Fort Qu'Appelle, 1881. Clearly the original sketches for some in the printed illustration above


Attempts to civilise and Christianise red Indian, In the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, XIV, Sketches from Quebec by Mr Sydney P Hall, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 630, December 24, 1881


Sketches by Mr Sydney P Hall, To the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, VI, the Voyage to Quebec, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 618, October 1, 1881. Second from the right at the top is the Salteaux leader Louis O'Soup wearing an outfit now in the British Museum


Louis O'Soup - Prior Hall's original sketch, at Fort Qu’Appelle on 18 August 1881 - note his 'name' at bottom right


IN THE GREAT NORTH-WEST WITH THE MARQUIS OF LORNE, CROSSING THE BOUNDARY LINE: 1. Rolling Prairie: An Attempt by Dr. Macgregor to Describe the Infinite; 2 . A Visit to the Blackfeet Lodges, Fort McLeod; 3. ""Chief"" Mountain, on the Boundary Line Between British and American Territory; 4. Our American Mule Team Ambulance and Lieutenant Rowe, U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment, in Charge of the Escort; 5. Across the Line: Colonel J. Ford Kent, U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment, C.O. Fort Shaw, Receives Lord Lorne in a Sibley Tent at the Indian Reserve; 6. A Republic of Prairie Dogs


Farms and Freighters, In the Great North-West with the Marquis of Lorne, XI, Canada, illustration from the magazine The Graphic, volume XXIV, no 627, December 3, 1881.


[Cree] Customers at Smart's store, Battleford, Saskatchewan, 1881


This may be based on another Hall drawing: Mic Mac Indians presented to the the Marquis of Lorne at Halifax, 1879


Reverend John Mclean, Anglican Bishop of Saskatchewan

Presumably there are more original sketches out there...

[grahamew]

A couple of sketches made of Wild West Show Indians:




No names, ufortunately

[Dietmar]

The first one reminds me of No Neck, the left man in the second picture of Kicking Bear. Just an impression.

[grahamew]

I can't find the site I took the images from, though I suspect they were made in London.

Interesting that he copied this photo of Shivwits Paiutes being baptised by Mormons:





Another of his sketches made in Canada. The text says, "Yellow Quill" and "Portage La Prairie" - so he's presumably the Ojibwe leader of that name:



The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in Calgary, 1901 (1902). I guess these are Blackfeet. Note the Treaty Coats worn by some of the men at the front*:


This looks like a sketch of the same event; unfortunately, this is the only size I can find*:


Finally, what seems to be half of the Crowfoot picture turned into an etching:


Ooops! Turns out the two marked with an asterisk * are by Melton Prior, another British artist, who accompanied the Prince of Wales to Canada in 1901...

[grahamew]

Beardy in his Chief's Coat




This man wears a Chief's Coat and a medal presented to him at Fort Ellice. He's named,, Chief Cote and he was drawn at Fort Pelly. A 'finished' version can be seen in one of the posts above. This may be Gabriel Cote, who was chief of the Cote Saulteaux between 1874 and 1884, when he died.

[grahamew]

Pow-wow at Fort Carlton, 26 August 1881

[grahamew]

Beardy's 'secretary'

[grahamew]

Pow-wow at Fort Ellice, Manitoba


Horse Teams and Wagons Crossing the Assiniboine at Fort Ellice, 13 August 1881


Oronhyatekha, acting president of the grand council, 1881 - Mohawk. The first First Nations person to attend Oxford University and a champion of the rights of women, children and minorities.

[grahamew]

More examples of the painting sketches Prior Hall made of the people at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The date given is 1887, so I assume they were made on the visit to London, though they appear to be in The Library and Archives Canada collection:








The last two were labelled as women - though not by the artist. I suspect they're a man and boy. I wonder if the last one is John Nelson's son.
I've seen reference to Prior Hall taking a photograph of participants at a Wild West Show in Montreal in 1887, but according to this www.buffalobill.org/PDFs/Buffalo_Bill_Visits.pdf , it didn't visit Montreal that year...

[grahamew]

This is the photo supposedly taken by Prior Hall in 1887. It's like several other show photos. At a guess, maybe it was in his collection. Taken in London?




Another Wild West Show painting sketch. Jenny Nelson?


Although these painting sketches were dated 1887 on the The Library and Archives Canada collection website, this image by Prior Hall was used in The Graphic Magazine in 1892:



Of course, there's nothing to say he didn't visit the show on both tours, but if this could mean the 1887 date is incorrect and if it was during the May 7 – Oct. 12, 1892 visit, Dietmar may be correct and that might well be Kicking Bear in the bonnet in the post above.

I assume there must be more somewhere...

[Dietmar]

I believe this is Black Heart... so yes, could be in 1887.

[grahamew]

Visit to a Blackfoot Indian Camo, Fort McLeod, Sept, 1881


The published version - tipi at right belongs to the headman, Sitting on an Eagle Tail


Moo-soo-min/Old Gooseberry pleading for food


Group of chiefs assembled to met Lord Lorne at Fort Qu'Appelle - possibly Dakota leaders


'Blackstone', Ojibwe laying down the law of the land at the landing - perhaps the Garden River Reserve wharf - he's named the man after William Blackstone, a venerated figure in the history of British law, so we don;t get to know his actual name.


Naugaubo - of the Little Current Ojibwe, 22 July 1881


Little Black Bear, daughter of Cree leader Big Bear, 18 August, 1881 - same day Prior Hall and Lorne met the Dakota at Qu'Appelle