These photographs of Algonquian and Dakota Indians belong to one of two albums containing more than 1,000 mounted albumen prints, including portraits of delegates to Washington, D.C., expedition photographs, and early Western studio portraits. The numbers in the corner of each photograph may be in the hand of renowned photographer William Henry Jackson (1843–1942).
Clockwise from upper left: Op-Po-Noos (1847, photograph by Thomas M. Easterly); Cut Nose (ca. 1862, photograph by Joel E. Whitney); unidentified Dakota man (ca. 1858, photograph by James McClees Studio); Medicine Bottle (1865, photograph by Joel E. Whitney); Bum-Be-Sun (1847, photograph by Thomas M. Easterly); Ma-Za-Ka-Te-Mani (1858, photograph by James McClees Studio). Western American Photographs Collection, Manuscripts Division.
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After emigrating from his hometown of Oneonta, New York, in 1851, Carleton Watkins found work as a photographer’s aide in San Francisco. Once in business for himself, he began photographing the Yosemite Valley and California mining scenes. His stereoviews and mammoth photographs of Yosemite made him famous and helped to influence federal legislation to protect the valley, which President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) signed on June 30, 1864. Western Americana Photographs Collection, Manuscripts Division.
More than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, still considered the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. Antietam was also the first American battlefield to be photographed before the dead were buried. These photographs were owned by General George McClellan (1826–1885), the leader of the Union forces at Antietam, and taken by Alexander Gardner, McClellan’s staff photographer. Gardner’s photographs shocked viewers, many of whom saw these devastating scenes of war for the first time. Gift of George B. McClellan, Class of 1886. George B. McClellan Papers, Manuscripts Division.