David F. Barry - the 'Sitting Bull' backdrop

[grahamew]

Edit - I've added a few photos and some comments to the 'Crow' backdrop thread.

In 1884, Barry moved to Bismarck, North Dakota, taking over and refurbishing Orlando Scott Goff's old studio and he had quarters (but no studio) at Fort Yates - although heski notes at some point in his book that Barry "acquired many photographs" when he visited Fort Yates, which implies he took a 'mobile studio' with him.

I have no way of knowing that this next group of photos were taken that year. Thomas Heski talks about him photographing Rain in the Face, Gall and John Grass in 1885. Maybe he's referring to the series of photos where Sitting Ball, Grass and rain in the Face wear a horned bonnet???

However, it seems reasonable to group these together based on the backdrop used - with the odd qualifier! The next backdrop is different, but some of the furniture is still present.

The inevitable fly in the ointment this time is this photo, depicting a young woman, Shooting Star. This seems to have the backdrop familiar from the Crow and Gros Ventre photos, but it also has studio furniture (the wall feature) that doesn't turn up in the next series of images, all related by their backdrop, that I'm going to post. Make of it what you will...


Shooting Star


Here we see what seems to be a new backdrop,but with the fence railings and chair from the photo of Sitting Bull in the other thread:








In the last two photos, he seems to be wearing exactly the same clothing and has the same feather arrangement as in this one, which has the same backdrop used in the Crow photos:


Was he using two backdrops during the same period?


Crowfoot


Standing Holy


Standing Holy


Grey Eagle


Grey Eagle


Flying By


Long Feather


High Bear


Long Dog


Long Feather, variant on the above


Long Feather and Father Craft


Fire Cloud (I've seen this image credited to G. G. Klenze, a successor to Barry, but this is clearly Barry's backdrop from this period - and, anyhow, William DeGraff leased Barry's gallery after he left for Wisconsin in 1890)


Fire Cloud


Two Bear


Two Bear with his son and daughter


Yellow Wolf, a policeman


Bull Head


Bull Head


Yellow Bird


White Clover


Rain in the Face. This seems to be a reversed image. The reservation suit wouldn't be that uncommon for the mid 1880s, but the majority of Barry's sitters are posed (or have been posed) in 'traditional' dress.


Honest Woman - another reversed image.


Long Dog


|Long Dog


Unidentified woman and child - elsewhere identified as Rain in the Face's wife (Sati?) and child.


Two Bear's daughter - another reversed image


Unidentified woman


Unidentified women


Sunshine, a Crow girl

[gregor]

Hi grahamew,

I also looked up my archive and found 7 different backdrops used by Barry. I have the impression that he used his backdrops alternating at different places.

Here is hat I found:

Backdrop No 1 (1880/81)
is used at Fort Buford, see the well known photos of Crow King, Low Dog etc. That was when Barry started travelling west.

Backdrop No 2 (your "Crow backdrop")
Here we have photos of Curly (Crow), War man (Crow), Young-Man-Afraid (Oglala), Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa), Jumping Bull / Little Assiniboine, etc.
The fact that we have pics of Sitting Bull & Little Assiniboine lets me assume, that this backdrop was used as early as 1881 or 1882. But more likely in the mid 1880ies when Barry visited Little Bighorn with Gall in 1886 (I assume on this occasion he photographed Curly on the Crow Agency).


Backdrop No 3 (1886)
is a garden scenery with some kind of pergola. Here we have pics of Dr. Henry Porter in 1886 (who accompanied Custer to the LBH) and Hairy Chin as Uncle Sam (who died some days after the session in July 1889) and a group photograph with Slow White Buffalo, Crow Eagle, Iron Thunder and Fool Thunder. But there are more pics with this backdrop.


Backdrop No 4 (1884-85)
is used in the famous photographs of the Sitting Bull children (Crow Foot and Standing Holy), the chief himself and others. There is also a series of Hunkpapa celebrities who were photographed with crucifixes (maybe a present of father Francis M. Craft). It is supposed that this pics were donated to the pope Leo XIII in 1885.


Backdrop No 5 (1888-89)
shows a scene in nature with military tents in the background. This backdrop was used in the Gall series, when Gall was already rather fat (one photograph in breechcloth with a german-silver cross). In other pics he wears a leather suit and different implements are used (a fake fence, a fake rock). This must be in the late 1880ies. I would guess about 1888/89.


Backdrop No 6 (1888-89)
is an interior scene - fake locker or wood boarding with different implements, e.g. a pedestal etc. Here we have for instance Sitting Bull and Rain-in-the-Face, both wearing the same Strong Hearts Headdress and a war club or a chanupa. Lt. Charles De Rudio (7th cavalry) and his daughters were also photographed in front of this backdrop. Some say this was Sitting Bulls last session in front of a photograph.


Backdrop No 7 (1888-97)
shows a wood land scenery with some Tepees in the background. The Sioux (Land stealing) Commission of 1888 - Reverend William J. Cleveland, Major James McLaughlin (not part of the Commission), Judge John V. Wright and Captain Richard Henry Pratt - were photographed in front of this backdrop. Barry has used this backdrop also in 1897 when he stayed for a year in New York, where he photographed members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, e.g. Annie Oakley, American Horse and Red Cloud and others. There is also a pic of Barry with Rain-in-the-Face in front of the backdrop.

As you have mentioned before Barry had only one Studio at a time (Bismarck or Superior or New York ). But he seems to have traveled a lot in a wagon outfitted with a dark room. I believe he rented rooms at the different locations or Agencies. I'm not quite sure about this - it is an assumption I believe Barry sometimes also did some retouching directly on the glass plates, see for instance your postet pics of Rain, Grey Eagle, Long Feather and the big one of Fire Cloud above (look at the fake curtain on the right side?).
Maybe next time I will post some more pics.

Puh, that's all for now. Any suggestions?

[grahamew]

We know Barry visited Fort Custer in 83 and we Know Young Man Afraid visited the Crows that same year - so the Crow backdrop must be from then, but it was a portable backdrop and my assumption is that Barry took this back to Bismarck (or perhaps visited Fort Yates) and photographed Sitting Bull and Jumping Bull/Louie Sitting Bull/Bob Brave Bear (you choose) after SB had left Fort Randall. I'm assuming it's the same year, but it could be 84. He does seem to have changed backdrops not long afterwards. SB in the next set of photos doesn't look to have aged or changed visibly from the previous one, whereas he's quite clearly an older, heavier man in the shots where he wears the horned bonnet - more about that in a later thread.

Thanks for setting it out like this.

There are also several portraits where it's hard to see the backdrop, as well as a few photos credited to him that may not be his.

I'll try and get through as many as I can - and it's reassuring your timeline more or less follows what I was thinking.

[Dietmar]

Happy New Year everyone,

just to add to the confusion... I think there are even more backdrops that have been used by Barry.

It seems only two photos have this backdrop design:




Big Belly


Moon Eyes

[grahamew]

Yes - and there are more: there's a one featuring Hidatsas (or largely Hidatsas) against a winter background.

[gregor]

Here is Barry's "gallery" from Ft. Buford again:



It seems as if it's a complete portable studio. Look at the boards - all have the same size. And there are shroud lines, the whole outfit seems to be set out with pegs. However the structure was destroyed in 1884.