Alexander Gardner

mammoth-plate albumen print, titled in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount, inscribed 'The Western Reserve Historical Society' and with other annotations in pencil and ink on the reverse, matted, 1867

Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Cowan's Auctions, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, 10-12 May 2006, Lot 614

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Grading this albumen print on a scale of 1 to 10 – a 10 being an albumen print with rich, deep dark tones, and highlights that retain all of their original detail – this print rates an 8. While its dark tones lack the depth of the very best albumen prints, this print is beautiful nonetheless. It has not yellowed or discolored. The condition issues cited below are apparent, but they do not diminish the impact of this dramatic image in a significant way. There is a noticeable spot of old retouching in the print's upper left corner. The print has faded somewhat, and this fading seems to have been affected somewhat by the adhesive originally used to affix it to its mount: when examined closely, the brush-strokes of the adhesive application are visible. There is a 2 ½-inch crease in the image, near the right portion of the bottom edge, which breaks the emulsion only slightly—this was presumably in the print prior to mounting or occurred during the mounting process. When examined closely in raking light, a number of small imperfections, characteristic for a print of this age, can be seen in the surface. The photograph is mounted to thick off-white paper, measuring 19 by 20. It is creased in the upper left and lower right corners, stained in the lower left corner, and shows general age-appropriate wear on its extremities. None of these issues affects the print.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This photograph shows the Brulé Sioux chief Medicine Bull during his visit to Washington, D. C., as part of the 1867 Sioux delegation.  Alexander Gardner, one of the foremost documentarians of the Civil War, became, in the late 1860s, one of the principle photographers of Native Americans.  His photographs made in the field in Kansas and Wyoming and in his Washington, D. C., studio remain among the most eloquent pictorial representations of the Native American peoples.  Extant prints of Gardner's Native American photographs are rare, and large-format pictures, such as that offered here, especially so. 

When a devastating 1865 fire destroyed much the Smithsonian Institution's collection, including its paintings of Native Americans, Smithsonian secretary Joseph Henry proposed commissioning a series of photographic portraits.  Henry wrote that it was necessary 'to begin anew. . . a far more authentic and trustworthy collection of likenesses of the principle tribes of the United States. . . The Indians are passing away so rapidly that but few years remain, within which this can be done and the loss will be irretrievable and so felt when they are gone' (quoted in Fleming, Native American Photography at the Smithsonian: The Shindler Catalogue, p. 3).  Although the commissioner of Indian Affairs was reluctant to fund the venture, financial support ultimately came from the unlikely source of Englishman William Henry Blackmore.  One facet of the project involved copying photographs from Blackmore's own extensive collection; another was making new photographic portraits of representatives of the many Indian delegations visiting Washington, D. C., at the time.  Alexander Gardner and the elusive A. Zeno Shindler became the official photographers for this latter endeavor.  In addition to the full-length Gardner portrait of Medicine Bull offered here is a seated portrait of him, made during the same visit, by Shindler (ibid., p. 48).

As with so many of the Native Americans involved in the disputatious and ultimately doomed sequence of delegations and treaties in the nineteenth century, little biographical information is available on Medicine Bull.  His Sioux name has been given as Tatanka Wakon; he was known to whites initially as Sacred Bull, and later changed his name to Medicine Bull in honor of his father.  He was a signer of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, and was a Sioux delegate to Washington once again in 1880-81.  He ultimately settled on a reservation in South Dakota and became an Episcopalian.  He sent his two children, Samuel Medicine Bull and Virginia Medicine Bull, to be educated at the Hampton Institute in Virginia.  In addition to the 1867 photographs by Gardner and Shindler are several 1880s photographs of Medicine Bull by Charles Milton Bell.  One shows Medicine Bull in a heavy wool overcoat holding an Indian blanket; another shows him in a suit, holding a top hat, along with two other Brulés, Standing Cloud and Lieutenant Henry Bullhead (National Anthropological Archives, BAE GN 00193A/Bell Collection 06647101 and BAE GN 00139/Bell Collection 06641700).