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Lot 296
Sale 6425 - American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography
Part I - Lots 1-222
Oct 23, 2025
10:00AM ET
Part II - Lots 223-376
Oct 24, 2025
10:00AM ET
Live / Cincinnati
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Estimate
$1,000 -
1,500
Price Realized
$3,600
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
[7TH US CAVALRY]. BARRY, David F. (1854-1934), printer. Postmortem photograph of Sergeant Frederick Wyllyams, killed by the Sioux in June 1867.
4 x 6 in. oval vignette, mounted on larger 10 x 12 in. board, with blindstamp of Barry in both the photograph and on the mount. With penciled inscription on verso, "White Man Killed by the Sioux The 2 cuts on the legs show the Sioux mark - From the way he's cut on the legs - shows he was killed by a Sioux Indian."
Perhaps one of the most oft used images to illustrate the Sioux custom of mutilating the bodies of their enemies. This image was not taken by Barry, but is a copy of a photograph taken in 1867 near Fort Wallace, Kansas, by William Bell.
This graphic image shows the body of Sergeant Frederick Wyllyams of the 7th Cavalry. Wyllyams was mutilated and killed in a fight with a Cheyenne Dog Soldier War Party on 26 June 1867 at Fort Wallace, Kansas.
Provenance: The Mike Butler Collection of Western Photography; Cowan's, Historic Americana, 6-7 June 2007, Lot 76.
The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography
This lot is located in Cincinnati.