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Post by grahamew on Mar 10, 2014 14:22:40 GMT -5
Good call, Wolfgang.
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Post by grahamew on Mar 12, 2014 15:53:32 GMT -5
Note the backdrop of tghe Yankton Charley and Red Cloud photos. Almost the same, though I suspect it's been repainted. Look at that protuberance to the right, for example. Now the Red Cloud is dated, tentatively, by Goodyear as being from the late 1870s. I would guess the photo of Yankton Charlie and his wife dates from a good ten years later - note the beaded vest. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but I haven't seen a photo of anyone wearing a vest with geometric patterns from before the late 1880s. Finerty talks about seeing a Lakota man with a beautiful vest in Sitting Bull's camp in Canada in 1878, but doesn't describe it. Could it have been a floral style one popular with Metis and traders who had Lakota wives? Who knows? The point is, it seems like the photos are a good ten years apart. As mentioned above, Meddaugh was born in 1862 and doesn't seem to have operated a studio until 1888 (Fleming and Lusky, 1988) and was only in the business a 'couple of years' (Jensen, Paul and Carter, 1991). Was the image of Red Cloud someone else's sold in a Meddaugh mount? If so, can the same be said of the photo of Yankton Charlie? And what about Red Cloud's daughters, because the backdrop is the same one? Note the chair in the photo of Sword and his wife is the same on as in the picture of Red Cloud's daughters: Which leaves (at least) two questions: Did Meddaugh buy the backdrop - or, indeed, did he take over someone else's studio and acquire their work? Who took the Red Cloud photo and was still using the same patterned studio backdrop several years later when he photographed Yankton Charlie? As noted above, Ricker, in Tablet 39, referring to him as Jim Meadows, notes he had many "negatives of Indians and of ghost-dancing before the W. K. fight. When A. H. Baumann sold his Rushville studio to Meadows he let him have these negatives. Meadows was burned out at Lead several years ago. Baumann took those views. He has been in business in Rushville, Gordon. Buffalo, Wyo., and Crawford." The impression I get is that Baumann was a contemporary of Meddaugh, arund 1890 but later worked with someone called Fitzsimmons in Crawford, Nebraska. Just to confuse matters, here's another photo with the same backdrop: Pretty Owl/Mary Good Road:
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Post by grahamew on May 12, 2016 17:00:37 GMT -5
Here's a variation on one of the photos above. Recently up on Heritage Auctions and credited to Trager etc. The identifications are all incorrect. Didn't Trager's company buy the work of others (like Cross at this time) and pass it off as their own? Maybe this is where the confusion about the photographer stems from. If the previous posts are correct, though, this is clearly a Meddaugh: Here's a larger but still unclear version of the photo further up thread entitled Buffalo Bill's Outfit 1889. You can see some of the same figures in the photo above and that looks like Rocky Bear kneeling at the front and Sword at the right.
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Post by Dietmar on Nov 28, 2019 11:39:48 GMT -5
Unfortunately most of the Meddaugh pictures above are gone, thanks to tinypic. Here´s a new one, taken from Ebay: I assume 'Mr. Cook' is Rev. Charles Smith Cook, Episcopal missionary at Pine Ridge around 1891 and a mixed-blood Yankton. Is that correct? Is he the man standing far left or one of the men holding a bible? Can we discern any other of the men in the photo?
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Post by Dietmar on Nov 28, 2019 12:15:37 GMT -5
Well, most likely he is the man standing far left: Rev. Charles Smith Cook, 1891 The man in the second picture above, standing second from right in the front row, I think could be Robert American Horse. I also assume this then must be the Holy Cross Episcopal church of Pine Ridge, where Cook served as missionary and Robert American Horse as catechist. It was Holy Cross Church where Indian survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre were cared for and where Gus Trager made several photographs of them.
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Post by grahamew on Dec 5, 2019 13:13:27 GMT -5
I've reposted MOST of the Meddaugh photos. Hope we find some more soon!
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Post by Dietmar on Dec 5, 2019 16:04:23 GMT -5
Thanks a lot, Grahame. I´ve seen some more of Meddaugh´s pictures, but they are not related to Indian history, for example photos of Deadwood, Wild Bill Hickock or white settlers. Here is one of an Indian woman, Alley Big Foot:
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Post by Dietmar on Dec 5, 2019 17:06:43 GMT -5
Another Meddaugh, possibly taken much later than the above pictures. The auction seller labeled the photo "Meddaugh Studios Cabinet Card of Chief Black Elk (1863-1950) Oglala Lakota Sioux. He performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West". Certainly this not Nicolas Black Elk. Could he be his son Ben?
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Post by clarence on Dec 6, 2019 4:54:03 GMT -5
In the church group picture above I think the fifth man from left, next to the police agent (George Sword?), looks a lot like the Hunkpapa Thunder Hawk. I know it's a shot taken in Pine Ridge while he was resident in Standing Rock, but it's just my guess...
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Post by Dietmar on Dec 6, 2019 7:09:07 GMT -5
Thank you Clarence, I can see a certain resemblance to Thunder Hawk, but I think it's rather unlikely that he is seen in this Pine Ridge photo. However, I can be wrong about that. Woman´s Dress is another name that comes to my mind when I look at his face.
George Sword at the time already was a captain of police, so that must be another policeman in the photo. I´m not totally sure, but my guess at the moment is William Iron Crow, who actually was wearing the stripes of a first sergeant in 1891.
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Post by grahamew on Dec 6, 2019 13:21:31 GMT -5
I wonder if we're dealing with more than one generation of Meddaugh (even when if rule out the Red Cloud picture)...
About the Red Cloud photo... Maybe Meddaugh took over someone else's studio and kept the same backdrop for over ten years; maybe it is a later photo of Red Cloud (say, around the time of the on RC and American Horse shaking hands, when he'd grown his hair again) taken by Meddaugh and slightly touched up???
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Post by Dietmar on Dec 6, 2019 16:11:35 GMT -5
Here´s a link to biographical information on James Edward Meddaugh: www.geni.com/people/James-Meddaugh/6000000037428037205Family folklore says he was born on Shindagin Road. James died 26 Oct 1926 in Stockton, CA, and was cremated and interred at the Stockton Crematory in Stockton, CA. James was a photographer. He went out on his own as a young man traveling hobo style to the Black Hills and Wyoming. He was a photographer in Lead and Deadwood, SD as well as Rushville, NE. In 1898 he wrote a letter to Oscar Middaugh on business stationary with the inscription "Black Hills Opera House Circuit" J.E. Meddaugh, Mgr. In the letter he said his Uncle James lived 16 miles from Jacksonville, FL.
From South Dakota James went to California and was there during the big earthquake taking pictures that he copyrighted and published in a book with his partner, Mr. Chapman. He never went back East. But his brother, Frank, did visit him at least once as there are pictures of the 2 of them together.
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After his father’s death in 1873 he went back west to live with Uncle Charles & Aunt Maggie @ Clear Lake, Iowa. As a young man he hit out on his own with a camera & traveled Hobo Style' to the Black Hills & into Wyoming. He was a photographer in Lead, & Deadwood, S.D. & Rushville, Neb. A genealogical correspondent sent me a letter he wrote to an Oscar Middaugh in 1898 in answer to a query on his family history. The most interesting part of the letter is the fact that it was written on his business stationary of "Black Hills Opera House Circuit" J. E. Meddaugh Mgr. This stationary told the names of the towns, population, seating capacity, size of the stage, & if steam heated or having electricity. Lead City had a population of 8000 & the Opera House there seated 1000; Deadwood pop 7000-seated 900; Rapid City a population of 3000 with seating capacity of 300, etc. The letter also said, "I had an Uncle James who lived 16 miles from Jacksonville, Fla." James m'd Serena Redlon who was born in Wisc & they had 2 children: Jamie Arthur born in South Dakota. In 1892, m'd in California 8 Aug 1814 Anna Elizabeth Trimble d/o Arthur & Evelyn (Downing) Trimble of Watsonville Calif. He was a telephone lineman & it is believed they had no children. Hazel, birthplace & date not known, m'd LeRoy Hefner & after her father’s death came east & lived in Morristown, NJ. She came to Candor once & visited her Candor cousins but we have lost contact with her. It is thought she had 2 children but we are not sure. From South Dakota James went to California & was there during the big earthquake & took pictures of it & later he & his partner, Mr. Chapman, published a little booklet of the pictures of the earthquake. A copy of this booklet is in the family today. Every picture was copy righted. It is said that the pictures we have of his father today were all reprinted by him. James never did come back east but his older brother F.W. made at least one trip out to see him & we have pictures of the 2 together. James died following an auto accident in which his car went over a cliff in the San Andreas area where he lived on 19 Oct 1926, his 65th birthday. He lived a few days longer & died 26 Oct 1926, leaving wife Serena M of San Andreas son Jamie of Burlingame,& dau Hazel Hefner of Berkeley, Calif. His body was cremated @ the Stockton California Crematory on 28 Oct.
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Post by grahamew on Dec 6, 2019 16:55:32 GMT -5
Ben Black Elk was born in 1899 and it I agree it;'s him. It's tough to judge his age, but he looks older than 27. If that is the case, it's either an old mount or a different Meddaugh, though he seems to have been based in Lead after his Rushville days. Here's another print, this time in an Inglis mount, so who knows?
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Post by jeepjock on Sept 5, 2020 15:42:42 GMT -5
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acogg
New Member
Posts: 3
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Post by acogg on Sept 7, 2020 21:00:40 GMT -5
This may be the person Black Elk in the photo. www.findagrave.com/memorial/71996965/henry-black_elkThis Black Elk was an Indian Scout for the US Military and then became an Indian Policeman. In the 1900 and 1910 US census he gave his birth year as 1857 so that fits with the appearance of the person in the photograph. It also appears that he enlisted in the military as Black Elk and then later added Henry as his first name. If you look closely at the application for his headstone there is a something in parenthesis, possibly an Indian name that was converted to Henry? This was the only Black Elk I could find who was in the right place at the right time and was the right age. The Chief title may have been added for effect. There was quite an essay published in the Omaha Daily Bee dated July 12, 1888 about the Pine Ridge Reservation and the beef allocation days. It was written almost as if they were going to accompany the story with Meddaughs photos except they didn't have the technology to print photos. According to some later articles, Meddaugh was trying different mediums (fabrics) to print photos, perhaps they tried but couldn't yet print on a printing press. The photos I shared several years ago are estimated to also be in 1888 based on the ages of the people in the photo. Meddaugh opened his studio in Lead in 1891 and sold out to a partner in 1900 when he moved to San Francisco. Meddaugh suffered a fire in his studio in 1895 so a lot of his work and equipment was destroyed. He seemed to have bounced back rather quickly and was back open in a matter of months. Perhaps a lot of his photos and equipment were in his home during the fire. Meddaugh opened his opera house approximately 1893. It ran for several years and sometimes Meddaugh acted in it. Meddaugh was a showman in many ways and he strikes me as a man with a great sense of humor. Attachments:
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