Printed Books & Early American Photography, including Selections from the Larry Ness Collection

6 stereoviews on oversized orange cardstock mounts, each verso with imprint of W.R. Cross, Niobrara, Nebraska, and list of titles in the series documenting the "New Spotted Tail Agency and Upper Missouri River." Toning and soiling to prints and mounts. Edge and corner wear to mounts, including some corner loss.

The centerpiece of the lot is a stereoview of the steamer Niobrara, with penciled note on verso, "First Steamer of the Season - Spring of 1880, Yankton Agency." The Niobrara was built at Wellsville, OH in 1878 for the Sioux City-Niobrara trade. She was sold in 1885 to Mobile, Alabama interests and renamed the "W.G. Little." She was lost in 1888. Provenance: Dr. C. Wesley Cowan; Cowan's, Wes Cowan Stereoview Auction, 30 March 2015, Lot 188.

The following scenes are also enclosed: White Thunder's tipi and family, with "White Thunder" inscribed on mount below image (fading to print, loss to lower left corner of mount). -- Indian graves at the Yankton Agency, as per penciled notation on verso. -- View of several Native subjects seated together, possibly at Fort Sully, D.T., as suggested by underlined title on mount verso (surface loss to left edge of mount, soiling throughout and some residue on verso). -- Ponca Indian grave, with skulls positioned in front of a natural, tipi-like structure. -- View of people and horses gathered outside of an establishment identified to "W.E. Caton." The view may document the business of W.E. Caton, an Indian Trader who operated at Fort Bennett, D.T.