E. B. Snell

[grahamew]

E.B Snell’s photographs of Cheyenne and Arapaho living around Fort Reno often turn up on auction sites. He seems to have been a contemporary of Cosand and Mosser and, indeed, some of the subjects are the same. Unfortunately, not much seems to be known about him.

Fleming and Luskey in The North American Indians in Early Photographs can only credit him with “Undated cabinet portraits of Cheyenne” and note his studio is listed as Elite Gallery, Wellington, Kansas (p.243). Treadwell and Darrah in their mammoth survey, Photographers of the United States of America ( stereoworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/US-PHOTOGRAPHERS.pdf ) can add little: “Snell & Sargent Wellington, KS [7-8] [E.B. Snell; no other ref. to these men in KS] Reported to have issued rare views of loc.”

Sargent is Frank M. Sargent, but I can find even less about him!

Here is their advert from the 1886 Directory of the City of Wellington:



When he teamed up with Sargent is unkown; his Indian photographs are just credited to Snell and in the directory, he is listed separately to Sargent as well as in partnership with him – and it’s clearly the same man because the address is the same:



Note that he is described as from Ohio, because I came across the OCCGS Civil War Veterans Project which refers to an Edwin B. Snell from Medina County, Ohio, who fought with the Union army as a Private in the 9th Independent Battery Light Artillery. He was born on 23 February 1846 and his professions are listed as a jeweller and farmer; the document goes on to tell us that three of his four children were born in Kansas, from 1873 – 1876. His first child, Edna Blanche, was born in Ohio, as referenced in the Wellington Directory above. In the 1870 Census, he is still living in Ohio, but in the next census in 1880, he is living in Wellington, Kansas. He died in Orange County, California on 17 July 1920.

occgs.com/projects/civil_war/Snell_EdwinB.pdf

Trawling through the internet, I came across a site for Sterling Flatware Fashions and stumbled on this, confirmation that Edwin B. Snell formerly of Ohio, is the photographer with the studio in Wellington.



www.sterlingflatwarefashions.com/Res/Indiv/S/SnellEdB.html


Note the date for his foray into photography is given as c. 1880.


Further digging showed he already had a studio in Wellington by 24 April 1884 because he employs Cina/Lucinda Crossman on April 24, though she has leaves to set up a studio with William Hart by January of the following year:

“In the 1886 Wellington city directory E B Snell is partners with F M Sargent in the State National Bank building. The directory says that Sargent is from Indiana.”


cabinetcardphotographers.blogspot.com/2018/10/crossman-and-hart.html


Snell is still working into the next decade. An advert appears in The People’s Voice of Wellington, Sumner County on 1 April, 1892:

"For fine finished photographs go to E. B. Snell at Wellington or Belle Plaine, For cabinet size $2.00 a dozen. For thirty days I will give a life size crayon 14x17 on every dozen photographs providing you buy the frame and glass for 175. Gallery in Belle Plaine open Thursdays, Fridays.”


Moreover, he photographed the devastation left by a tornado when it hit Wellington that year:

Sumner County Kansas Historical and Genealogical Society have a number of the tornado photos on their facebook site: www.facebook.com/Sumner-County-Kansas-Historical-and-Genealogical-Society-218930379987/

For example:






You'll notice that only Snell's name appears on the cards, not Sargent's.

Of course, this doesn’t get us nearer to finding out when the bulk of Snell’s Indian photographs were taken, other than c. 1885


Unfortunately, the quality of some images isn't great and it's not always easy to make out the backdrop.


Riding on a Cloud, Cheyenne. Note the use of the studio log at the left and note only Snell's name on the card frame. As noted, he doesn't look older than he does in the photograph taken by Snell's contemporaries based in Caldwell, Cosand and Mosser: amertribes.proboards.com/thread/2699/cosand-mosser


Walk Behind and son


Wolf Road, Cheyenne. Ive read somewhere that he was part or wholly Lakota and was the brother/brother in law of Riding on a Cloud; however, he looks about 40 years older than Riding on a Cloud, so maybe not.


Walk Behind's son


Cheyenne girls


Yellow Crow Woman, mother of Pretty Man

More later...

[grahamew]

The following photos all use a wooden fence prop. The painted backdrop isn't always easy to make out, but it's clear that it's not the same one in all the images.


Unidentified Arapaho man



Bob Tail


Mrs Brave Bear, Left Handed Woman, Walking Woman (Whirlwind's daughter)


Elva Medicine Water


Red Wolf - who I've seen labelled as a 'Sioux' - presumably his presence is a result of intermarriage between the tribes
( memphislibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15342coll10/id/104/rec/1 ) Unfortunately, this is the best version I've seen.


Sprinkle Horse and Small Back


Mrs Sioux Marches, Miss Turkey Legs and her daughters


Unidentified, but clearly one of Miss Turkey Legs' daughters


Black Coyote, Arapaho


Faith Morrison - Jesse Bent's wife. Jesse was Robert Bent's son.


Mrs. Herntes with baby and other Cheyenne woman


E.B. Snell’s cabinet card of a Cheyenne family—Young Whirlwind, wife and daughter (Walking Woman) —was given to Henry Heth, a surveyor for the Office of Indian Affairs (today’s Bureau of Indian Affairs), in 1888.

Note that although they use the fence prop, the four photos immediately above appear to have a different painted backdrop.

The bulk of these photos can be found in the Gilcrease: collections.gilcrease.org/creator/e-b-snell - though they're not all listed under 'Snell.'

It's interesting to note how many of the female sitters are named, even if only as the wife of... Quite often, there is no identification of females.

More later...

[Dietmar]

Here we got a Snell and Sargent mount:


Little Bear, Cheyenne

[grahamew]

Thanks, Dietmar. The only other photo I've come across that's credited to Snell and Sargent is this one:


You might just be able to make out the name 'Sargent' at the bottom right.

However, I have seen this image of Chief Joseph credited to Sargent:



It's supposed to show Joseph in Kansas around 1880 - 1881  www.washingtonhistory.org/research/collection-item/?search_term=Chief+joseph&search_params=search_term%253DChief%252Bjoseph&irn=48001 .

However, he was only at Fort Leavenworth for eight months before he was transferred to Indian Territory, so if Sargent did take this photo in 1880-1, he took it there.

Not to digress (much) but I thought the first photographs taken of Joseph in Kansas AND Indian Territory were these two, where he looks considerably younger than in the 'Sargent' photo:




To confuse matters further, this image is sometimes seen on a Snell frame:



However, I've also seen some photos that definitely have nothing to do with Snell or Sargent on a Snell mount:

This is a Notman photograph of Sitting Bull and WF Cody taken in Canada in 1885


And there's this one of the Apache, Nana, stamped "E.B. Snell, Elite Gallery, Wellington, Kas." on the reverse, but actually taken by AF Randall in Arizona in 1884.


And isn't this man, Brings Plenty, a Lakota Wild West Show performer?


But of course, we know selling images taken by other photographers was rife and Snell's work was no exception:



More later...

[grahamew]

A few more photogtraphs with the fence prop...


Making Medicine (O-kuh-ha-tuh) or David Pendleton Oakerhater and his second wife, Susie Bent, also known as Smoking Woman or Nahepo. They were married in 1882, so this dates from then at the earliest. Note this is credited to Snell and Co.


Cheyenne woman and daughter


Row of Lodges and family, Arapaho. There is a Henry Row of Lodges in the 1903 Arapaho census. He was born c. 1880. Presumably, he's one of the boys in the photo; however, he is the only Row of Lodges mentioned. Again, the mount is stamped 'Snell and Co.' and it has the same backdrop as that of Faith Morrison and Making Medicine.


Arapaho boy


Arapaho girl


Black Dog (?), Cheyenne ?


Daughter of Black Short Nose, Cheyenne

[grahamew]

This particular backdrop crops up in several Snell photos. Change of time? Change of location? What's particularly interesting is that the 'sitters' aren't just Aarapho or Cheyenne.


Cheyenne mother and child


Arapaho man - I've also seen him labelled Cheyenne


Cheyenne sisters


Cheyenne mother and child


Poison - also written as Pizen.


Young Cheyenne woman


Unidentified woman and child


Old Crow and child
Is this the same Old Crow photographed by Choate at Carlisle in 1884? If so, the Snell portrait seems to show a man a little older:



Oto man? Kaw?


Unidentified and Little Eagle (also known as Old Wichita), Pawnee

More soon...

[Dietmar]

Two quick remarks on your posts above, Grahame.

- yes, both photos of Old Crow show the same man.

- Row of Lodges was the son-in-law of Arapaho chief Little Raven. His son who went to Carlisle Indian School was indeed Henry. Jesse Row of Lodges, later a prominent Arapaho, is said to had been his stepson.

[grahamew]

Thanks again, Dietmar.

Here are some more work by Snell. It's not always easy to see, but they seem to have the same or similar backdrops, though none use the fence or the log props.


Step-daughters of Porcupine Bull


Old Pizen i.e. Poison, but I've also seen this woman identified as Old Yellow Hair, doll-maker and mother of Iron Shirt on the back of an image held here: quod.lib.umich.edu/p/pohrt/473/CAB161_002?chaperone=S-POHRT-X-473+CAB161_001;fn1=creator;fq1=Snell%2C+E.+B.%2C+photographer.;lastview=reslist;resnum=5;size=50;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=ic_all;q1=pohrt


Unidentified Arapaho (?) woman and baby


Unidentified woman and baby


Lame Bear, Cheyenne (?)


Killer Woman, mother of Riding on a Cloud


Unidentified (Arapaho?) boy. Note the parent's hand to comfort him


Unidentified


Coyote Woman and Buffalo Wallow Woman, daughters of Sleeping Bear (?)


Brave Bear, wife and child

(Still a few) more to come...

[Dietmar]

Great, Grahame.

Women are almost always poorly represented in history. Like you said, it´s great to have these names recorded by Snell.

Especially interesting to me is Killer Woman, the mother of Riding on a Cloud. The latter (portrait further above) is better known as Man on a Cloud. He was a younger brother of Alights on a Cloud, the famous Cheyenne who was killed by Pawnee in 1852.


edit: just found this...

home.epix.net/~landis/manonacloud.html

"Man on Cloud, 87 yrs.old, 7-20-1939

Parents: Medicine Water No. 1/ Man Came Out New Died before allots. and Killer Woman

[...]

Man on a Cloud #20 was known in the family as Man Riding on a Cloud/Riding on a loud/Touching a Cloud. His father was Alights on a Cloud, killed by the Pawnee (Wolf People) in 1852, on the South Loupe River in present state of Nebraska."

So here it seems he was rather a son than a younger brother.

[grahamew]

He does look rather young here. Moreover, that might be why Wolf Road is said to be his brother. Presumably, he's the brother - or half brother, if he is Lakota - of the older Riding on a Cloud.

[shan]

Help!

For some reason or other I can longer see or open any of the photographs on this site. It may have something to do with to do with a friend who helps runs my website, [e-mail] who came and did some work on my computer, during which he told that I should stop using Google as my browser as it tended to give you too many things that were trying to sell you something, before letting you get to whatever it was you were looking for. Use Firefox as your default browser he said, and promptly switched me over before I could stop him.

Does anyone else have this problem, or know why I can't see, or open the images here?

Shan

[grahamew]

No idea, Shan. Sorry.

Here are some more Snells:


Cheyenne mother and baby
This has the same backdrop as the photo of Yellow Crow Woman


Left Hand, Arapaho


Big Horse, Cheyenne - I've also seen this credited to Cosand and Mosser


Corn Woman, Cheyenne


Mrs Fred Hoffman and the daughter of Small Nose (who is surely Corn Woman from the photo above)

I wonder if this is another Snell:

Bobtail Horse, Cheyenne

One late addition to the fence prop series:


Unidentified young women

[grahamew]

I've seen a few outdoor Snell photographs taken among the Arapaho:


I think there are more Sun Dance photographs, but the others I've seen, aren't mounted on Snell cards. However, I've also seen this credited to Hosmer, Weatherford, Oklahoma Territory.


Arapaho singers, drummers and dancers


And here's a shot of Fort Reno.

[grahamew]

I received several kind and generous emails packed with information about Snell from Jared Scheel, Director of the Sumner Co. Historical and Genealogical Research Center at Wellington, Kansas.

First of all, the Snell detailed on the OCCGS Civil War Veterans Project is definitely him. He and his family is listed in the 1885 and 1895 Wellington census and his, his wife's and Blanche's birthplace is given as Ohio in the 1895 census. He's also on the muster roll of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1888, which briefly details his military service tells us he was born in Wadsworth, Ohio. His occupation, as with the 1885 census, is given as Photographer.

He died only 74 on 17 Jul 1920 at Orange, Orange County, California, USA and is buried in Santa Ana Cemetery, Santa Ana, Orange County, California.

Thanks to Mr Scheel's research, I've now seen numerous newspaper clippings of Snell's activities. For example, he arrived in Wellington in 1879 as a watchmaker and jeweller. Presumably for financial reasons, he was also farming while running his photography business. After trips out to California in the late 1880s and 1890s, the family moved out there at the end of the 1890s, possibly for the benefit of his wife's health, and he sold his gallery to Dallas Snyder, a young man who had been working with him, in May 1889.

Although one clipping from February 1888 states that he sold the 'Snell and Co. Photographic Plant' to a Mr B.R. Simmons, an ex-partner, he was clearly still operating as a photographer after that and nearly lost his life while taking images of the afternmath of the cyclone that cut through Wellington in 1892.

As to the images he made of the Cheyenne and Arapaho (and others), Mr Scheel's research reveals several interesting points.

First, there is a clipping from the Wellington Semi-Weekly Vidette, dated 12 August 1879, stating that "Mr E.B. Snell of this city, who spends most of his time at Fort Reno, arrived in town last week. He will visit his family for a few days then return to the fort." Now, unless he was going there to fix watches or sell jewellery, this would indicate he was taking at least one series of photographs during this period - though I think we can surmise from the different studio backdriops that the 'Indian photos' weren't taken all at the same time.

Furthermore, there are two clippings from The Monitor Press (Wellington) dated Aoril and May 1886 that report Snell had been at Reno (and was heading back there) to photograph Native Americans, the military and the scenery.

Tantalisingly, there are two references to his 'rivals', Cosand and Mosser (see amertribes.proboards.com/thread/2699/cosand-mosser ). One concerns an incident involving a watch stolen in Wellington that was sold to a Caldwell photographer, where Snell sees it. Presumably, the Caldwell photographer is either Cosand or Mosser. A more obvious link is that in the 31 Otcober 1889 edition of the Sumner County Standard (Caldwell and Wellington are in Sumner County) reports that Snell has moved his gallery and is now "assisted by Mr. Mosser, formerly of Caldwell, and one of the best artists in the state."

If Mr Scheel allows it - and I can find a way to do it - I'll attach the PDF of the newspaper clippings that he was good enough to send me.

[grahamew]

Here is the collection of newspaper clippings relevant to Snell - compiled by Jared Scheel, Director of the Sumner Co. Historical and Genealogical Research Center at Wellington, Kansas.


clippings of eb snell.pdf (1.16 MB)