American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Oblong octavo album, (7 1/4 x 11 in.). 50 silver gelatin photographs, majority approx. 5 x 7 in., partially mounted recto/verso on 7 x 10 in. album pages, most unidentified with the exception of 4 photographs (toning, some with surface loss, some with residue on surface, few with corner loss or full separations at corners). Leather-covered paper boards (some scuffing, wear to extremities). Provenance: E.F. Kelner Collection (consignor notes). 

A series of photographs taken on the San Carlos Indian Agency in Arizona, which served the Western Apache Indians. The first photograph, captioned "San Carlos Indian Agency Buildings & Traders Store," is mounted on the reverse side of the album cover and provides a distant view of the agency's buildings and surrounding landscape. Additional images of the agency and its environs include "Indian School Buildings" (as captioned on mount); "San Carlos River" (as captioned on mount); individuals posed next to tall saguaro cacti, some showing the photographer J.E. Jones and his family; and Apache wickiups. 

The album features many individual and group portraits of Apache men, women, and children, posed in both traditional and anglo-style clothing near wickiups or adobe structures. Included are portraits of young women with facial painting; two women posed with playing cards; a group of women and men in uniform gambling on a blanket on the ground with Model 1890 Remington Single-Action Army revolvers visible; a family group that shows the husband, in uniform, playing a one-bow Apache fiddle while the wife weaves a basket; portraits of young Apache couples, one showing a husband wearing his police uniform and posed with his rifle; multiple views of familes at their wickiups, one of which appears to include a Caucasian subject; a Caucasian prospector surrounded by mostly Apache subjects with burros and shovels; and a prospector's outfit at San Carlos. 

The album also contains at least 6 photographs of Apache police officers, many shown wearing badges and holding Model 1844 Springfield "trapdoor" carbines. Two capture large groups of men, mostly police officers, posed in front of the jail. Some of these photographs appear to be previously unknown. 

Additional highlights include: An image bearing the caption, "Al Sieber & Indian Scouts," which shows at least twenty Apache scouts perched on the side of a rocky mountain, aiming their Springfield rifles and carbines at an unknown target. Albert Sieber (1843-1907), shown at center, served as a Chief of Scouts during the Apache Wars. He participated in Crook’s Apache campaign and was involved in trying to locate Geronimo. This image is almost certainly a period copy after the original example taken by J.C. Burge, Kingston, NM; 2 photographs of an unidentified Apache man holding a quiver in one hand and bows and arrow in the other; 2 period copy images documenting Apache ceremonies. Also enclosed with the album is a photograph of Apache Medicine Man "Clan Na Hoot Te." Globe, Arizona: G.H. Thwaites, n.d. 4 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. photograph on 7 x 9 3/4 in. cardstock mount. 

Although uncredited, the majority of the photographs housed in the album were produced by John Edward Jones (1863-1922), a native of Clark County, IL, who moved to Labette County, KS, with his family in 1873. Jones taught at the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona by 1899 but little is known about his work as a photographer outside of information provided by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, which has a number of Jones' photographs in its holdings. He was almost certainly a government employee, probably with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As the Museum's catalog entry makes clear, Jones must have been seen as some authority figure considering the intimate access he had to the Apache subjects. (Information obtained from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum website.)