R. L. Kelly

[Dietmar]

standing left (with hat) is Moses Straight Head from Thunder Butte, Cheyenne River:



I wonder if the man sitting on right could be Long Feather (High Feather), Sihasapa, although these are more probably all Cheyenne River people.

[grahamew]

I wondered about that. The lack of sharpness about the photo makes him look a lot younger than the man in Barry's photos of Long Feather (from 1886?) and, as you say, the other men are from a different agency.

[grahamew]

Paul Kills Two



Unidentified



Unidentified


Unidentified


Unidentified

Some of these Kellys are on www.facebook.com/NNAIOP/photos/  They're identified as Miniconjou and the date given is circa 1908. There are several outdoor shots in the same group and I wonder if they are by Kelly too.


Unidentified man with prosthetic leg


This is interesting because the backdrop matches the one in the earlier photos, including Kelly's photo of Spotted Eagle, so I'm assuming the date is early-mid 1880s for this one


John Blue Cloud and son, Green Grass community, Cheyenne River

[grahamew]

Another Kelly. No date, but presumably another Cheyenne River resident:


Hump, a few years down the line?

[grahamew]

Another one:

[grahamew]

Identified in an auction catalogue as possibly being Eagle Shirt. I think he looks like the man sitting at the left in what I take to be an earlier photo here:



Crow Eagle, former First Sergeant of Indian Cavalry Troop. Admittedly, this has the look of a Scott about it.
If not, however, it may show one of the sons of Crow Eagle the Two Kettle leader. See amertribes.proboards.com/thread/873/crow-eagle


Unidentified


Here's a better version of Little Bull, Cheyenne, although I wonder if this doesn't refer to Cheyenne River agency rather than the tribe.

[Californian]

biographical specs:

R. L. Kelly - born Robert Louis Kelly to Irish immigrant parents in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on the 30th August 1851. Around 1879 he opened in that city his first photographic studio, moving to Pierre in Dakota Territory in 1881 continuing in the photographer's trade. Towards the end of his life (after 1931) Kelly moved to Richland, a suburb of Minneapolis, where he died on May 30th, 1934. Of Kelly's six children only two survived into adulthood, Ilma Edith Kelly 1885-1985 and Daniel Sheldon Whipple Kelly 1900-1994. There are numerous living descendants today.

[Californian]

late 1920's/early 1930's reprint by R.L. Kelly of a late 1880's/early 1890's full length portrait of Red Skirt, Miniconjou chief from Cheyenne River Agency. The crude canvas background might be an indication that this could be a plagiarized image originally made by another photographer as none of the positively attributed images to Kelly feature it.

click onto image to enlarge

[grahamew]

Interesting. Never knew that was a Kelly image. Another version of the image is here if you scroll down: amertribes.proboards.com/thread/95/identification-photos?page=7

[Californian]

hi Grahame, I forgot all about that one, thanks for the reminder. This version and the one on the on the Red Skirt thread is inverted from the one currently featured on eBay with the R.L. Kelly cardstock. I do really think that R.L. Kelly possibly copied this portrait at some point and it is another photographer's work, based on the crude canvas backdrop that does not seem familiar with his familiar images. Hopefully some day we know more. We already have at least two known examples of R.L. Kelly printing other photographer's images, the famous "butterfly" portrait of Sitting Bull which is the work of G.W. Scott and the one of Gall that you mentioned was the work of W.R. Cross.

[Californian]

another image on R.L. Kelly cardstock - currently for sale on eBay (21 Sep 2024). The seller states that it is Hard to Kill, Oglala and provides a link to this forum american-tribes.com/Lakota/BIO/LittleHawk.htm. Kelly's name imprint on the cardstock is unfamiliar, also that it is partially obscured with the image glued over it and it may be actually by someone else. 

click onto image to enlarge

[grahamew]

Two of the men - including Hard to Kill - are pictured in the first page of this thread against the same backdrop. Is it the Oglala Little Hawk's son? Dunno, because I thought Kelly's later photos tend to feature people from Cheyenne River

[Californian]

It is quite possible that there were more men called Little Hawk. Clearly the eBay seller "googled around" and came about that posting referring to the Oglala man of that name, thus it could be a group from Cheyenne River all along.

[grahamew]

To muddy the waters further, I think the name wasn't uncommon. Little Hawk's son was born in 1865, but I found two Hard to Hits  born in 1874 and another in 1873. There must have been at least one other Oglala Hard to Hit around that time, because he features in Bad Heart Bull's drawings, but would be too old to have been born in 65, 73 or 74, and according to Sam Maddra (and this - codyarchive.org/texts/wfc.nsp11522.html ), another man with that name was at Fort Sheridan with Kicking Bear and Short Bull, though I don't know what tribe he was and it's possible he was one of those already mentioned. According to one print of the Fort Sheridan prisoners I've seen, he's on there, but his name isn't among Dietmar's identifications:

It's possible, of course, that he was known by another name.

[grahamew]

Here's the third man -along with the boy - from the Kelly photo Californian posted:



This looks like another Kelly: