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Post by Californian on Jun 12, 2022 21:30:32 GMT -5
Henry Bird Calfee (1847-1912) and his partner Nelson Catlin are generally mentioned together when Montana photographers are the subject. The two men ran a photographic business in Bozeman during the early 1870s. Issues of the Bozeman Times for 1874-78 constantly mentioned the two men as photo shop owners, and at one point Calfee was said by the newspaper to have moved to Radersburg, Montana. By his own account, Calfee came to Montana Territory in 1870 and visited Yellowstone as early as 1871, when he stated that his fellow traveler Macon Josey fell into a Yellowstone hot spring. Thereafter, Calfee was mentioned in numerous 1870's Yellowstone accounts as constantly being in the Park taking pictures. Montana pioneer W. E. Sanders met him in 1880 at Old Faithful, and Calfee told him that he (Calfee) had been in the park photographing it every year for nine seasons. Hence, Calfee must have begun taking Yellowstone Park photos in 1872, if not 1871. While in the Park every summer during the 1870s and early 1880s, Calfee took at least 295 photos of Yellowstone and figured into some early park history. So continually present was he in Yellowstone Park each summer during the 1870s that he was in place to convey Mrs. Cowan and her party to the safety of Bozeman following their ordeal with the Nez Perce Indians in 1877. In 1879, he and Catlin played a minor role in the naming of Lone Star Geyser, and took photos of a "sagebrusher" party. In 1880, Park superintendent P.W. Norris named a stream in Yellowstone Calfee Creek for Calfee who was accompanying Norris's party that year. During the period 1881-82, Calfee went on a lecture tour to promote Yellowstone Park with W.W. Wylie which was mentioned frequently in the Bozeman Avant Courier newspaper. Woodcuts made from Calfee's photos graced Wylie's 1882 park guidebook entitled Yellowstone National Park, Or The Great American Wonderland. An incomplete set of Calfee's stereo photos survives at the Montana Historical Society. Likewise, the Yellowstone Park historic photo collection and several known private collections all contain a number of Calfee stereo views. From these we know that the series reached as high as number 275 and was called "The Enchanted Land or Wonders of the Yellowstone National Park by H.B. Calfee." Calfee's stereo views indicate that he was probably even responsible for several park place-names, among them Demon's Cave, Pulpit Basins, and Fairies' Fall, as he searched for captions for his photos. Calfee was very interested in the park's geysers, apparently more for their photographic potential than because he was a budding "geyser gazer" (person with a passion for geysers). He went so far as to set up his traveling studio in the Upper Basin and there to sell his photos directly to travelers (one of his photos shows this "store" with Calfee's signs proclaiming "Views of the Wonderland" for sale). And Calfee began predicting the eruption times of some geysers, an interpretive activity in itself, probably to help sell his photos. He did this particularly at Giant Geyser, for traveler Wilbur Sanders ran into Calfee there in 1881, and posed with his party for one of Calfee's photos. Said Sanders: "Calfee expected the Giant to spout today and nearly everybody in the Basin was lounging around it 'from early morn to dewy eve', awaiting its [200-foot high] action." Much less is known of Calfee's partner Nelson Catlin except that his name appears on many Calfee stereo views. These were printed with the squib "Calfee and Catlin" on them and were part of their series known as "Views of the Wonderland or Yellowstone Park." The numbers in this series reach at least to 148. Like those of Calfee and Crissman individually, Catlin stereographs represent treasures of early Yellowstone days. It is not known whether or not Catlin produced any views bearing his own name alone. An analysis of Calfee’s stereo view history reveals that he issued at least two series of Yellowstone views. These series were reprinted in various forms, and although they have several title variations, the photos themselves remain remarkably consistent. Calfee’s first series would seem to be his green mount views. They are all titled and numbered on the front. This green series had at least two printings with different reverse styles. One was the set entitled "The Enchanted Land or Wonders of the Yellowstone National Park." The other stated, "Views in the Wonderland, or Yellowstone National Park." This second title would remain on several Calfee sets. This series appeared again in another printing with Brown Colored mounts and the "Wonderland" reverse. His second series would be issued on Yellow Mounts. Still titled, "Views in the Wonderland, or Yellowstone National Park," this series had a new reverse showing a man holding an artists palette and standing on a box camera. It had essentially the same view list as the first series, but the titles were varied and shown in strips on the reverse side. Still later, views credited to Calfee and Catlin all appear to be reprintings of this series. Calfee also issued a set of unmarked views on orange mounts and another on beige. click onto images to enlargeText of this H. B. Calfee biography courtesy of Lee H. Whittlesey’s article, "Everyone Can Understand a Picture" in "Photographers and the Promotion of Early Yellowstone", Magazine of Western History, Summer 1999 issue, see attached Whittlesey-Yellowstone-1999.pdf (2.96 MB)
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Post by grahamew on Jun 13, 2022 16:53:32 GMT -5
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Post by Californian on Jun 13, 2022 22:33:05 GMT -5
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Post by grahamew on Jun 14, 2022 8:24:50 GMT -5
I think this must be The Enchanted Land or Wonders of the Yellowstone National Park, by H. B. Calfee: 091: (Group of Indians outside of teepee) There's a list of his Crow subjects here: archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv21658092: “No. 154. Crow Indian Village, at Council Tree, on the Yellowstone River.” 093: “No. 156. Iron Bull's Camp on the Yellowstone.” 094: “No. 158. Little Wolf - War Chief.”(Studio portrait) 095: “No. 161. Interior of an Indian Lodge, or Wigwam.”(Group of people inside teepee (Crow tribe)) 096: “No. 162. View on Main Street, Bozeman, Montana. The outfitting point for the Wonderland.”(Early street scene, wagon train) 097: “No. 163. Near Bottler's Ranche - Upper Yellowstone. An Incident of the Nez Perce War of 1877" (Boney Ernest, packer; Texas Jack, scout; Capt. Bailey, British Army; Mr. Birmingham, British Army; Miss Carpenter; Mrs. Cowan; Mr. Carpenter) 098: “Indian Camp in Winter.”(Crow Indian teepees) 099: (Crow Indian camp) 100: (Indian woman sitting for photograph) 101: “Indian Camp in Winter.”(Crow Indian camp) This makes me think the bearded white man in the capote isn't Calfee but may be Texas Jack Omohundro. However, Jack has his own acting company and I'm not sure how often he was in the West until his death at Leadville in June 1880. On top of which, this man seems to have a fair bit of hair under his hat and if you look at the photos of Texas Jack, this doesn't seem to be the case, as if the hat is covering a receding hairline. This gentleman posted above is Little Wolf - War Chief, No. 158 Photos taken just prior to the Crow delegation leaving for Washington that year. It would be nice to think there are photos of the other members of the delegation too... editions.lib.umn.edu/panorama/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2020/11/Red-Star-and-Vittoria-Apsaalooke-Bacheeituuk-in-Washington-DC.pdf
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Post by rawhide on Jun 16, 2022 6:47:23 GMT -5
The lodges in Calfees 091 don't look like the ones made by the Crows
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Post by grahamew on Jun 16, 2022 8:42:21 GMT -5
No, I suspect Bannock or Snake.
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Post by gregor on Jun 20, 2022 13:00:13 GMT -5
Hi folks, back from holidays I would like to add another theory to our "man in the tipi". The reference to Texas Jack isn't bad, but whether Omohundro is the man in the tipi - I have my doubts. We came across Omohundro via the 4th Earl of Dunraven. So far so good.
Why not come back to Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin aka 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl? Dunraven has been to the States several times on hunting expeditions: in 1871 (with Bill Cody & Omohundro), in 1872 in Nebraska and Wyoming, in 1874 with Omohundro in Yellowstone Park (!) and in 1876 in Estes Park (Colorado).
In 1874 Dunraven was also accompanied by the English painter Valentine Walter Bromley, who made some interesting paintings (worth googling) of the expedition. Prints of Bromley's work can be found in Dunraven's book The Great Divide about the tour. The Earl was displeased by Bromley, who devoted most of his efforts to documenting Crow Indians rather than the wonders of Yellowstone. Hence the earl's displeasure was illustrated by the non-existent mention of Bromley in the book. I was hoping to find Bromley pictures showing the earl on the Yellowstone trip. So far without success.
The website www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/yellowstone.html cites an unknown source who wrote the following about the Dunraven company: "...Texas Jack, a tall powerfully built man, ....was dressed in a complete suit of buckskin and wore a flaming red neckerchief, a broad sombrero .... Shortly thereafter, came the earl and Dr. Kingsley [Dunraven's personal physician] both of whom were dressed in buckskins and wore large sombreroes."
BTW: The „Cody Hair and Van Dyke Beard Style“ and those buckskin suits were very popular in the 1870s .
It is known that Dunraven - quite a Victorian aristocrat - always believed in dressing for the occasion - and in this respect he is said to have been particularly impressed by William Cody's appearance. Maybe from Cody himself - there are sources that suggest Dunraven was gay (e.g. Barry H. Wiley. The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary). But that’s another story.
H. B. Calfee is known to have photographed Yellowstone beginning from 1872/73. So it's quite possible that Calfee photographed Dunraven and Co. Calfee himself wrote that he photographed tourists in Yellowstone in 1874. What would have been more interesting for Calfee? To photograph an English nobleman or his guide?
Admittedly, it is very difficult to derive an identity from a blurred photo. But in my opinion, the eyes and nose parts also allow references to Dunraven (see my small photo montage with a Dunraven pic). As I said, another theory.
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Post by carlo on Jun 20, 2022 13:54:27 GMT -5
Interesting, Gregor, I must admit I didn’t know this individual. Facial features are indeed similar, but tbh those of the other two men are as well! And agreed, the hairstyle, facial hair, and clothes were very popular at the time.
What strikes me as interesting is that our man is photographed twice with a little child (girl?) near him / on his lap, and in one of those (or both?) pictures he is flanked by what appears to be a woman. Could he perhaps have married into the tribe? So perhaps a fourth option…
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Post by Californian on Jun 20, 2022 16:26:20 GMT -5
Hi Gregor, that's another angle and quite interesting one. What possibly would speak against Earl Dunraven (referring to him in an informal manner) is that the man in the photograph seemingly has long hair, which would have been unusual to someone of his social rank and being a short term visitor from Europe (i.e. hunting trip). It would have taken considerable time to grow long hair. Calfee, on the few images that I saw of him, had short hair, which puts Texas Jack again back as a prime candidate, although there are the issues about the timing/whereabouts of the latter that Grahame had pointed out earlier in this post, but then we really don't have a precise date of the image anyway. I thought that I ought to throw this in, just for the fun of it.
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Post by grahamew on Jun 20, 2022 16:46:32 GMT -5
If that's the same man in the exterior view of the Crow village in winter, it isn't Texas Jack because he has a lot of hair under the pushed-up brim of the front of his hat and Jack didn't have that much hair on the top of his head.
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Post by Californian on Jun 20, 2022 16:50:39 GMT -5
maybe that one is yet another man - perhaps an interpreter (Métis? ) ...
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Post by grahamew on Jun 27, 2022 14:30:47 GMT -5
If this... is Little Wolf, Crow War Chief... then who is this...?
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