CDV on cardstock mount with Eaton's Omaha, Nebraska imprint on verso and penciled identification, "Tompson [sic] scalpt [sic] by Sioux Indians, 1867."

William Thompson was an Englishman who ventured to the United States to work as a Union Pacific Railroad employee in 1867. While traveling across the western frontier with a crew of men, his group was ambushed by members of the Cheyenne tribe, and Thompson was shot, scalped and left for dead. Miraculously, he survived and was able to retrieve the scalp in hopes of having it reattached, which was not possible. Therefore, Thompson had the scalp tanned and carried it with him back to England. He subsequently sent the scalp back to the doctor who attended to him in Omaha, who in turn donated the artifact to the Omaha Public Library. (Information obtained from Omaha Public Library blog post, "About William Thompson & his Scalp," by Emily Getzschman.)

The CDV of Thompson offered here shows the visible effects of the scalping. This was one of two photographs of Thompson published in the 1935 book The Faded Frontier by Frank J. Burkley.