American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Canyon de Chelly, 1913, Walpi Pueblo. Oblong octavo album (6 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.). Cover with gilt title and credit to Herbert W. Gleason, containing 4 prints, possibly platinum, each approx. 4 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (5 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.), mounted recto/verso on fully disbound pages. Each with manuscript caption in lower margin. Captions include: Indian School at Keams Canyon. -- Crimson Cactus. -- House-top view, Walpi. -- Snake Dance Rock, Walpi. 

[With:] 33 prints, possibly platinum, each approx. 4 3/4 x 6 3/4 in., (5 3/4 x 7 7/8 in. sheet). Most with manuscript caption in lower margin. Many are housed in corner mounts under mats (prints are in very fine condition overall). Some likely removed from album listed above. 

The photographs feature scenic views of Canyon de Chelly and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, including multiple images of canyons, mountains, cliffs, and other rock formations typical of the Arizona landscape, some featuring people on horseback or in horse-drawn wagons. Also enclosed are images of herders tending "Navajo sheep" (as identified on image), a "Navajo Freight Team," people riding in an automobile, and Navajo subjects out and about. 

Born in Malden, MA, on 5 June 1855, Herbert W. Gleason graduated from Williams Colleage in 1877. He spent the following years at Union Seminary. He served as pastor of the Como Avenue Congregational Church in Minneapolis, MN, from 1885-1888, and was the editor of the Northwestern Congregationalist from 1888-1899 when he gave up his career in the ministry to become a photographer. He took his first photograph in 1899, beginning with a project close to home that involved documentation of Walden Pond and Thoreau country. These works were used to illustrate the 20 volume Torrey edition of The Writings of Henry Thoreau in 1906. In 1915, Gleason published a book on John Muir entitled Travels in Alaska. He lectured extensively for The National Geographic Society. Gleason numbered among his friends, Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, Earl Gray, former Governor General of Canada, and Luther Burbank.