R. L. Kelly

[grahamew]

What do we know about R. L. Kelly?

In the 1880s he was working alone in Pierre, Dakota Territory, but he also seems to have worked with a partner, M. B. Odell, in Deadwood.

He is credited with taking the photograph of Sitting Bull with the monarch butterfly pinned to his hat in 1883, although just about every other photographer in the area has been credited with this.



If you look at the Sitting Bull in the Hat thread (under Hunkpapa) and the Gilbert thread (under Portraits - and, yeah, it should be under photographers. My fault. Can this be fixed, Dietmar?), there are discussions raising some of the pros and cons of this attribution - well, okay, mostly cons.

EDIT: What we do know is that Kelly photographed Sitting Bull in 1883 and that he was wearing a white shirt the day - which he isn't here. My guess is that this is Scott's photo of Sitting Bull and Kelly's has yet to re-emerge, unless it's in a mount with someone else's name on it...

However, he did photograph Spotted Eagle and though he seems to have been working over a considerable period of years, this must have been in the early 80s, judging by SE's appearance:



I know of two more Kellys from this period - judging by the backdrop:

Little Bull, a Cheyenne:



Three Sioux (there's no context, of course, to explain the presence of the trousers):



Donovin Sprague credits the following photos to Kelly. If this is the case, he was clearly taking photographs into the 1890s and possibly beyond.

Hump (late 1880s-1890s?):



James Blue Stone (1900s?):

[grahamew]

These Kellys depict men in 'traditional' clothing, but the somewhat incongruous backdrop is different to the first group above, although it is possible the same as in the Blue Stone portrait, thus dating them quite late.

The first two are clearly views of the same man; note he seems to be wearing trousers under his leggings; note also the cut of the bottom of the fringed shirt:







Sioux man:

[grahamew]

Finally, two more with different backdrops:

Sioux man:



Sioux woman:



This is possibly by Scott...

[Low Dog]

Grahamew,
I've now seen several different photos of Spotted Eagle and in most he clutches that same distinctive war club, and wears what appears to be a scalp around his neck.
I know little about him other than he was with Sitting Bull in Canada, and was regarded as a hard line traditionalist, can anybody fill in a few details?

LowDog

[Henri]

LowDog, take a look in the Sans Arc/Itazipco folder under Sans Arc or in the Lakota page under Miniconjous at the Little Bighorn.
Henri

[Low Dog]

Henri,

Thanks for trying to help, but I'm not sure what you mean when you tried to point me to 'The little Bighorn,' do you mean the original board?

thanks again Low Dog

[Dietmar]

Hi Low Dog,

we had bits and pieces of information on Spotted Eagle and also several photographs of him in several different threads at the LBH forum. A little bit is uploaded here:

www.american-tribes.com/Articles/ART/[e-mail]
(please copy and paste the url)

Ephriam wrote some more lines about him and other men named Spotted Eagle, which will be uploaded shortly at our main site.

And there is a little bit in our current "Sans Arc"-thread here on this boards.

Spotted Eagle is definetly a Lakota of whom more information is needed, so I´ll start an own thread in the Sans Arc section.

[grahamew]

Gall by Kelly, as appearing on the Heritage Auction site. The mount's Kelly's, but the photo's a 84 Scott from the early 1880s (before he started using that crude painted tipi backdrop).

[grahamew]

A Kelly I hadn't seen - Cheyenne girl - I wonder if it's a Cheyenne River girl...



I wish I had dates for these.

[grahamew]

White Swan - credited to Kelly but is it a Scott?

[emen]

Looking at the Sept. 22, 2008 post showing the Sitting Bull photo, I am intrigued since we have this Sitting Bull photo in our possesion, believed to have been taken by my great-grandfather, R.L.Kelly. May I ask where you came across this photograph?

[grahamew]

Some more Kelly photos:


Same man in the post above but a different pose


Interesting to note the badge and the old-style short breastplate



No dates, though I'd guess late 80s/early 90s

More, but with a different backdrop (as seen above):


Hard to Kill




I'd guess those last three are later still...

[grahamew]

More with the last backdrop...


Puts on his Moccasins with Lucy White Cow


Unidentified


Unidentified

I may be wrong, but I think these are also by Kelly:


Unidentified


Unidentified

And this one, because it has the same curious seat as in some of the two photos above:


Unidentified

[grahamew]

A couple more found on ebay:


Lakota family


Lawrence Metee (sic) and first wife (Lakota)

[grahamew]

Fairly sure these are Kelly's work too:








Iron Moccasin and wife (the others are all unidentified)

I have seen the photo of the 'Sioux woman' in the post above identified as a Scott, so those two with the same backdrop in this post would also be by Scott...