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Post by Californian on Nov 4, 2018 19:43:25 GMT -5
Gustav Träger / Traeger / Trager (also known as "Gus" and sometimes incorrectly billed as "George") was born in Gefell, Germany in 1861 and arrived in America in 1876. He studied photography in Whitewater, Wisconsin and opened his first photography studio in 1888 with Frederick Kuhn in Mazomanie, Wisconsin. Trager and Kuhn moved to Chadron, Nebraska the following year and purchased the Bon Ton Art Gallery from Alice Luce. The photographers sold scenic landscape pictures to travelers who stopped in Chadron on their way to the South Dakota spas of Hot Springs and the gold-mining towns of Deadwood and Lead City. In 1890 the duo opened a studio in Crawford, Nebraska near Fort Robinson, some 26 miles from Chadron, and Trager’s nephew Ernest joined the partnership. The men traveled and photographed Chadron, the plains, local events, prominent people, and interesting events which they sold to the curious public. During this time, Trager also associated with photographers William Henry Jackson and John Anderson, which perhaps explains why photographs taken by each photographer have been sold under the names of the others. Trager, Kuhn, and Trager also traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation where they photographed the Lakota Sioux. Their first trip was to see cattle slaughter in a mock hunt similar to the way buffalo were hunted. Trager was in the area at the time of the Ghost Dance but did not photograph it. That distinction belonged to J. E. Meddaugh who took the only known photographs of the Ghost Dance. Perhaps Trager missed out on this business opportunity because of his nephew’s serious illness. Nonetheless, tensions from the loss of reservation land, a new Indian agent, and the Ghost Dance led to the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890. Trager was one of the first to photograph the Wounded Knee battlefield and its aftermath. Clarence Grant Morledge of the Omaha World-Herald also photographed the scene and later collaborated with Trager to sell the pictures. Some photographs clearly attributable to Morledge appeared on Trager mounts. At this time Trager also began an association with Joe Ford who had collected battlefield mementos, and the two sold Wounded Knee photographs and artifacts in Chadron in conjunction with the M. E. Smith and Company store. Apparently the partnership with Kuhn had already ended. The striking pictures of the dead and wounded sold widely to soldiers and travelers in the Chadron and Pine Ridge areas. Additionally the pictures powerfully influenced the American public since they showed the reality of the event. Trager and Ford went on to establish the Northwestern Photographic Company for the purpose of selling their photographs and soon added W. W. Hayward as a partner. They advertised over 200 views of the Indian unrest (these probably included some of Morledge’s pictures) and the photographs sold very well. Trager was also known to compromise his work in the interest of sales. For example, he changed a subject’s name if he felt the person didn’t look the part. The demand for the Pine Ridge photographs lessened in mid 1891. Trager and Ford traveled to Wyoming to prospect. Trager returned to Chadron but left for Fremont, Nebraska in 1892, returning to Chadron again near the end of that year. From then on, all trace of him is lost. [Researched and written by Sandra J. Mahalek, 2013, a project of MONA’s Bison Society, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, NE 68847]
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Post by grahamew on Apr 11, 2019 13:25:19 GMT -5
Trager and/or Kuhn, his partner, took a series of full length studies of Indians around the time of Wounded Knee; some have a blanket as a backdrop while others have a muslin cloth painted with figures. I have no idea how many he took, but I thought I'd post as man as I have and hope that others contribute more - and some identifications... Big Road Alice Good Horse Black Dog Julia Spotted Horse and sister Few Tails' daughters - or possibly Stella and Fannie Fast Thunder She Went Through a Crowd Little Eagle and Mary Bizinette (Bisonette) She Came Spotted (seated) Unidentified Fast Horse Big Road (misidentified) Nice to see so many photos of identified women. I know there are more. There's at least one more policeman/soldier, for example. Needless to say, I've also seen some of these photos attrubuted to Grant Moreledge
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Post by Dietmar on Apr 12, 2019 6:12:58 GMT -5
The problem with these Morledge or Trager photos is that some portraits were identified correctly... and some were not. You always need a second portrait of an individual to compare to.
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Post by Dietmar on Apr 13, 2019 10:19:12 GMT -5
...for example, the portrait identified as Black Dog. I haven´t seen any man of that name in any list of Indian police men at Pine Ridge, let alone a man in a higher rank like a sergeant. Has anyone? Moreover, there is a man who resembles the policeman in the Morledge/Trager photo, and he is Joe Bush. You can find his name in several list of employees at Pine Ridge or at Red Cloud agency as a scout or policeman. In Tom Power´s "The Killing of Crazy Horse" his footnotes state he also was known as Big Belly Sorrel Horse and as Last Bull. According to Eli Ricker´s notes he was an agency policeman since 1879 and was a main figure in the Two Sticks trouble of 1894. It seems he had a son under the name Joe Bush Jr, who also served in the police units. A younger man of that name was photographed by George Spencer around 1891. Joe Bush allegedly Black Dog
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Post by grahamew on Apr 13, 2019 12:30:01 GMT -5
Certainly looks like him. And then we have the issue of who actually took the photos! I've also seen this credited to Moreledge with the suggestion that Trager simply marketed the images. A few more: Frank Wood and Kills Nine Men Young Man Afraid and Little Wound Little Eagle and Talks About Herself - so the man in my first post isn't Little Eagle as I first thought... Mary Spotted Eagle Bob White/Robert White (from Lt Cloman's Troop C) Samuel American Horse
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Post by Dietmar on Apr 15, 2019 7:15:26 GMT -5
Btw, Big Belly Sorrel Horse aka Joe Bush has been photographed by D. S. Mitchell, but that image hasn´t turned up anywhere. Probably Ephriam knows if it exists. Here´s another one labeled Black Elk, sent in by Wolfgang (Thanks!). This isn´t the Black Elk we know, is it?:
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Post by Dietmar on Apr 15, 2019 11:42:28 GMT -5
There was a Henry Black Elk, who was sergeant of Indian police at Pine Ridge in 1892. Maybe it´s him.
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Post by ephriam on Jul 3, 2019 21:49:19 GMT -5
Californian:
Trager was never known by the name George. In all the records in which he is mentioned -- including census records, land records, newspaper accounts -- he is always referred to as Gustavus or Gus. He later also used the name Gustavo. Unfortunately, the initial mistake of calling him George has persisted through John Carter (Nebraska State Historical Society) and other writers, creating confusion. I am working on a biographical article to hopefully provide more details about his early photography.
By 1896, Trager had located in Arcadia, Iowa, where he operated a studio in partnership with F. M. Steadman. The two partners then headed to Puebla, Mexico. Steadman returned but Trager remained in Mexico and abandoned professional photography for mining. He worked in Mexico from 1897 into the 1930s at least, with occasional visits back to his family in Wisconsin. I suspect he had a Mexican family and probably died there. I have been trying to track down this last tidbit his final years to complete the article.
Ephriam
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Post by Dietmar on Jul 4, 2019 8:07:59 GMT -5
Thanks Ephriam,
I changed the title of this thread to his original German name Gustav.
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Post by Californian on Jul 25, 2019 17:42:21 GMT -5
hi Ephriam thank you very much for your input - yes, I did hear somewhere over the years that Trager had gone to Mexico, though could not corroborate it to add to the text that I had initially posted. Since that text was authored by Sandra J. Mahalek in 2013 as a project of MONA’s Bison Society, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney NE the body of it should not be changed. Would to have any information about Kuhn Frederick Kuhn ? Somewhere I read that he had gone to Montana after his episode with Trager. In my research I usually try to track down living descendants of my subjects from whom I hope to obtain primary source material. Thanks again - this is good information. Read more: amertribes.proboards.com/post/23777/quote/2836#ixzz5ujQJ0AwICalifornian: Trager was never known by the name George. In all the records in which he is mentioned -- including census records, land records, newspaper accounts -- he is always referred to as Gustavus or Gus. He later also used the name Gustavo. Unfortunately, the initial mistake of calling him George has persisted through John Carter (Nebraska State Historical Society) and other writers, creating confusion. I am working on a biographical article to hopefully provide more details about his early photography. By 1896, Trager had located in Arcadia, Iowa, where he operated a studio in partnership with F. M. Steadman. The two partners then headed to Puebla, Mexico. Steadman returned but Trager remained in Mexico and abandoned professional photography for mining. He worked in Mexico from 1897 into the 1930s at least, with occasional visits back to his family in Wisconsin. I suspect he had a Mexican family and probably died there. I have been trying to track down this last tidbit his final years to complete the article. Ephriam
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Post by Californian on Nov 1, 2020 15:24:50 GMT -5
hi Ephriam, I had this particular subject on ice for a while, but not would like to get back into it. You mention that Gus Traeger was in periodic contact with his kin in Wisconsin, would you have any details about who these kin were ? It would be great if it can be revealed what ultimately happened to him and if he has living descendants.
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Post by Californian on May 9, 2023 20:18:54 GMT -5
Gus Trager died in Mexico City on the 10th July 1939 - his death certificate gives his name as Gustavo Ernesto Trager, miner, his wife thereon is listed as Cristina Maria Nohl. click onto image to enlarge
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Post by Californian on May 9, 2023 20:21:47 GMT -5
updated biography, courtesy of the Mazomanie Historical Society Newsletter – January 2020
Gus Trager the Photographer
by Paul Hessman
The certificate for the July 10, 1939, death of Gustavo Ernesto Trager at Mexico City gave his age as 76, parents Frederic and Maria Luisa Trager, and wife Cristina Maria Nohl. Gus was likely named Gustav Ernst Troeger at his birth between 1860 and 1863 (depending on the source) in Gefell, Germany, in what is now the state of Thuringia, but at the time it was within the boundaries of Saxony. He had at least five older siblings who came to Mazomanie: Karl Johann (Charles John), Robert O., Friedrich (Fred), Ernestina (Nina), and Lena. All children of Friedrich Troeger, in America they adopted the spelling Trager. There were apparently no other siblings who remained in Germany with the parents, who may have been deceased by the time the last of them came to America in 1876. The elder Friedrich may have married more than once, as Friedrich, Robert, and Ernestina identified their mother as Christiana, while the youngest daughter Lena gave her mother’s name as Julia Schoenfelder on her marriage record. Because of the German practice of using three or more given names, Gus, who was born a few years after Lena, could have been the son of Julia, and it cannot be ruled out that Christiana, Julia and Maria Louisa were actually the same person. Nonetheless, the Trager siblings always were referred to as brothers and sisters, with no further distinctions made. Gustav emigrated to America in 1876. He arrived in New York onboard the S.S. Mosel on 29 July 1876. With him on the voyage were his sisters Ernestina and Lena. Another passenger on that ship was Hugo Welsch who was also from Gefell, and whose mother was also a Troeger. The Sickle reported on 5 August 1876 that “C. J. Trager returned on Thursday evening from New York, where he met a brother, two sisters and a cousin, the last of his family from Germany.” All four of these immigrants ended up in Mazomanie, where they joined C.J., Robert, and Friedrich, who had immigrated earlier. Gustavus Trager was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in Madison on 31 March 1884. The June 22, 1882, Mazomanie Sickle reported that “Gustave Trager has started to learn the art of photographing of R. C. Evans.” This was Richard Charles Evans, a Cornwall-born resident of Mazomanie, who was also a portrait painter and did two stints as a printer at the Sickle. On July 29 the Sickle reported that: “Gustave Trager left on Wednesday for Milwaukee, where he has secured a position in a photograph gallery.” On January 6, 1883, the Sickle reported Gus’ attendance at a local dance. The real reason for his return to Mazomanie was reported a week later: “Gustave Trager is to take possession of the photo-gallery on March 1st.” And on January 29 the full details were presented: “Gus. Trager will take charge of the Mazo photo-gallery immediately after its vacation by Lancaster and will produce the finest works ever seen here. -- Gus. has become such an expert that the great Milwaukee photographer Stein has made him tempting offers to stay, but Gus proposes to set up here and take portraits of his old friends in high-toned city style.” And on March 10 the Sickle reported: “Gus Trager has everything in readiness to open his photo rooms over this office, next Monday the 12th. The gallery has been repaired, painted, and neatly arranged, and is newly supplied with scenery and other accessories. He invites all his friends to call and look at his rooms, and, if he can do anything for them in his line, he is at their pleasure, at least give him a friendly call.” Trager continued to operate his studio in Mazomanie for several years, no doubt keeping up with the latest developments [no pun intended] in photography. On August 1, 1885, he ran the following advertisement in the Sickle: “TIN TYPES. - For the next 15 days I shall be prepared to take Tin Types at my Photo Gallery. Photos and Tin Types taken together. Gus. E. Trager, Artist”. And on December 11, 1886, the following announcement was made: “Photos! Photos! Photos! Trager, the artist, has made another great reduction in the prices of his photos, from now until after the holidays, as follows: Cards, $1.50 per dozen; Cabinets, $3.50; 8x10 $6.00; 10x12's, $8.00. Gallery open on Sundays, from 10a.m. to 3 p.m.” The latter hints that perhaps the photography business in Mazomanie was slacking off, and that perhaps just about everybody who intended to sit for a portrait had done so.
Gus Trager’s gallery was among the businesses damaged by a fire in the Bronson block, reported in the May 12, 1888, Mazomanie Sickle. Another item noted that he and Frederick Kuhn had “entered into partnership and propose to travel through the western country taking pictures in a tent.” The following week’s issue said, “G. E. Trager and Fred Kuhn returned home from Chicago on Monday, where they had been purchasing photographic paraphernalia for their wigwam. They propose to start on their western business tour next Monday and will probably reach California next fall, where they intend to spend next winter. Good luck, boys!” They headed west in early June and apparently embarked on a new career as traveling photographers, serving towns that lacked a resident photographer. They would eventually be joined by Gus’ nephew Ernest G. Trager, the son of Gus’ older brother Robert. Ernest was born Ernst Gustav Troeger in Gefell sometime around 1867, only a few years younger than his Uncle Gus. On July 14, 1888, the Sickle reported: “Ernest Trager departed on Thursday for Calmer [sic Calmar], Iowa, to assist Trager & Kuhn in their photographic work, they have prospered far beyond their expectations and require more help to supply the demand for their work. This is certainly gratifying news to their many friends.” And on 1 December: “Ernst Trager departed for Oakland, Neb., on Monday to assist Trager and Kuhn in conducting a photographic gallery at that point the coming winter.”
There was no more news in the Sickle about Gus for the next ten years, but he was very active and what he did in that time period was truly historic. Trager Kuhn and Trager made their way to Chadron, Nebraska, where they purchased the Bon Ton Art Gallery. Their business shifted from portraits to scenic landscape photographs, which they sold to people passing through Chadron on their way to the mining towns and hot spring spas of western South Dakota. They were catering to the nascent tourist industry. They opened a second studio in Crawford, Nebraska. They continued to travel about, photographing any person, landscape, or event that they found interesting. In a shrewd business move, they seem to have reached an agreement with fellow photographers William Henry Jackson and John Anderson to pool their stock of photographs for sale by all, which must have increased sales for all of them. Gus Trager ended his partnership with Kuhn in January 1891. His nephew Ernest took seriously ill and would eventually leave the partnership. Ernest Trager married Ellen Jennings in Sheridan County, east of Chadron in 1893. They lived in Chadron for many years, but eventually moved to Casper, Wyoming, where Ernest died on 7 October 1928.
One of the locations where Trager photographed was the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota where he took numerous portraits of members of the Lakota Sioux tribe, as well as some of the soldiers stationed there. But there was growing unrest on the reservation which culminated on December 29, 1890, in the event now known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, which at the time was known as the Battle of Wounded Knee. News of the event made its way to Chadron, much of it inaccurate. There were fears of an Indian invasion of Nebraska. Troops and supplies began to make their way towards Wounded Knee and General Miles established his headquarters in a Chadron hotel. What happened next was reported in the Lincoln Star of May 16, 1925: “A party of Chadron men composed of F. B. Carly, W. F. Hayward, Gus Trager, a Chadron photographer, and Editor Sheldon, of the Chadron Signal, resolved to go to the battlefield. They secured a stagecoach, a frontier driver, a supply of rifles and ammunition and were about to start. It was suggested that they might encounter military, and it would be a good idea to secure a military pass from General Miles. The party went over to the hotel and secured an audience with the general, informed him of their design and asked him for the pass. General Miles was properly courteous and curt. ‘No place for civilians’ he said and turned to other things upon his desk. One of the parties spoke up. ‘General, we have all lived on this frontier, some of us longer than you have. We are going to ride to Wounded Knee with a pass or without, but we would be glad if you would give us a pass in case, we meet some of your military.’ General Miles turned to one of his aides and said, ‘Write these men a pass.” The group arrived at Wounded Knee and began photographing the aftermath within 48 hours of the “battle.” The resulting photographs of the dead and dying shocked the nation, much the same way that the Matthew Brady Studio’s photographs had done a generation earlier during the Civil War. Nonetheless, Trager still had a business to run, and he sold the photographs back in Chadron. Gus Trager had not been the only photographer at the scene. Clarence Grant Morledge of the Omaha World Herald also photographed the aftermath and some of his photographs were sold on Trager mounts, indicating that Trager and Morledge also had a cooperative agreement to market photographs. In addition, Trager began an association with Joe Ford who was selling battlefield artifacts. Trager and Ford would eventually found the Northwestern Photographic Company in Chadron. The photographs of Trager and others did much to influence public opinion about the nature of Wounded Knee and the Indian question in general and are now of great historical value. There are two major collections of Trager photographs. One was donated by the Mazomanie Historical Society to the Wisconsin Historical Society. That collection consists of 97 photographs from the Northwestern Photographic Company, taken by Trager and Morledge. Another collection was purchased by the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1987 from the Primera Alta Historical Society in Nogales, Arizona. At some point these photographs were incorrectly attributed to “George E. Trager” and, unfortunately, that error has been perpetuated over the years, so that many of his photographs have been filed under that incorrect name. In addition to the photographs, the Nebraska State Historical Society received some of the original negatives, which had been kept by Ernest Trager. The Denver Public Library also holds some original negatives from Wounded Knee. The Wounded Knee photographs were a hot commodity for about a year before sales fell off. It seems that this prompted Trager to turn to portrait photography once again. The Hartford (Kan.) News, of August 23, 1894, reported: “Gus Trager, the photographer, has closed up his business here and leaves today for his home gallery at Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Trager is a first-class artist, and his work has given the best of satisfaction. He is a jolly good fellow and made many friends during his two month’s stay in our city, who regret to see him leave.” In 1896 Trager was apparently in Arcadia, Iowa, where he operated a studio with Frank Morris Steadman. Together, they developed the SteadmanTrager method of exposure, which involved measurements and use of the Steadman-Trager exposure table. The Eastman Kodak Company became a proponent of their method. It was apparently about 1896 that Trager and Steadman left for Mexico. The May 1, 1898, edition of the Omaha Daily Bee reported that: “Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Combs gave a stag party on Friday night at 2711 Dodge Street in honor of Messrs. Frank M. Steadman and Gustave E. Trager, who have just returned to the state from a two years’ sojourn in Old Mexico in quest of curiosities and pleasure.” This hints at the possibility that Gus may have gone to Mexico in search of a new source of marketable photographs, but he would eventually become involved with mining there. Trager was not a stranger to prospecting. He briefly attempted some prospecting with Joe Ford in Wyoming in 1891, before returning to photography. Whether he was drawn to Mexico by photography or mining, the reason why he chose Mexico as his destination is not apparent. One clue may lie in U.S Patent No. 745,257, filed in 1901, in which Gus E. Trager and Frank M. Steadman, then of the state of Puebla, Mexico, applied for the patent of an improved measuring device, which was probably intended to be used in conjunction with their exposure method. Is it possible that Gus and Frank were trying to apply their knowledge of camera mechanics to the mining industry?
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Post by Californian on May 17, 2023 22:56:11 GMT -5
this is believed to be Gustav "Gus" Ernest Trager click onto image to enlarge
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