Post by Californian on Jan 7, 2021 19:24:42 GMT -5
Charles Milton Bell (April 3, 1848 – May 12, 1893) was an American photographer who was noted for his portraits of Native Americans and other figures of the United States in the late 1800s. He was called "one of Washington's leading portrait photographers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century" by the Library of Congress.
Bell was the youngest member photographer family who had a studio in Washington, DC in the 1860s and 1870s. He took over the family studio Bell & Brothers and started his own studio, C. M. Bell, in 1873. Bell worked with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who sent visiting Native Americans to Bell's studio to have their portraits made. Bell also made photographs of Native Americans for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of American Ethnology where he assisted in-house photographers. After Bell's death in 1893, his wife (Annie, née Colley) continued to operate the studio with her sons Charles Milton [Jr.] Bell and Colley Wood Bell. It was sold in the early 1900s to Atha and Cunningham who retained the original name. The negatives were sold to I. M. Boyce who sold the Native American images to the Bureau of American Ethnology and most of the remainder to Alexander Graham Bell. From there they wound up being owned by the American Genetic Association who donated them to the Library of Congress. The C. M. Bell Studio Collection held at the Library of Congress 30,000 glass negatives from 1873 to 1916 created by the studio and its successors. [courtesy Wikipedia with minor modifications]
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Bell was the youngest member photographer family who had a studio in Washington, DC in the 1860s and 1870s. He took over the family studio Bell & Brothers and started his own studio, C. M. Bell, in 1873. Bell worked with Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who sent visiting Native Americans to Bell's studio to have their portraits made. Bell also made photographs of Native Americans for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of American Ethnology where he assisted in-house photographers. After Bell's death in 1893, his wife (Annie, née Colley) continued to operate the studio with her sons Charles Milton [Jr.] Bell and Colley Wood Bell. It was sold in the early 1900s to Atha and Cunningham who retained the original name. The negatives were sold to I. M. Boyce who sold the Native American images to the Bureau of American Ethnology and most of the remainder to Alexander Graham Bell. From there they wound up being owned by the American Genetic Association who donated them to the Library of Congress. The C. M. Bell Studio Collection held at the Library of Congress 30,000 glass negatives from 1873 to 1916 created by the studio and its successors. [courtesy Wikipedia with minor modifications]
click onto image to enlarge
click onto image to enlarge
