When I found this image in the catalogue for “Image of America,” curated by Herbert Sanborn for the Library of Congress in 1957, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Exploring the LOC catalog, its source seems to be a stereoview published by J.E. Whitney. But checking the Wikipedia entry on the Dakota Massacre of 1862 lead me down some interesting paths.
One of the authors there suggested that the image was by Adrian J. Ebell, due to an entry at the Denver Public Library on another print of the same image, which was noted “photographed by one of the party.” Searching on his name located an article published in Harper’s in 1863 which used a somewhat modified wood engraving from a sketch obviously taken from the photograph:
Notice the modification of the sullen faces in the center into more presentable happy ones:
But what seems more striking is the little girl lost from the foreground, surrounded by the prairie grass
Subsequent research into the MHS image database revealed a bit more; the author of the Harper’s article was repeated as the photographer—and, most significantly, the MHS owns the original stereo negative. I looked for Ebell in Palmquist’s monumental catalogue of photographers in this region from 1839-1865, and there he was: Adrian J. Ebell:
There is more about Ebell in an 1862 journal kept by one of his assistants (also in the possession of the MHS). It seems that he was just passing through the state at the time, storing his phantasmagoria equipment with Whitney on his way through. Yes, his main line of business at the time was putting on ghost shows. I find this a bit eerie, particularly in the postcard, from much later I think, where the people are hand-colored. The girl in the foreground is featured again in all her haunting glory.
Ghost stories are often best sellers.
You’ll find a scan of an original carte de visite of this image at http://photographymuseum.com/Massacr1.html , and there’s a side-by-side comparison of the original and the Harper’s woodcut on this page– http://photographymuseum.com/massacr2.html . There’s also a reference to a wonderfully detailed article on Ebell and the 1862 Dakota War by Alan R. Woolworth, Research Fellow at MHS.
One thing I’ve wondered about: why does the original caption say the refugees are “at Dinner on a prairie” while the published woodcut is titled “The Breakfast on the Prairie”? What reason would a journalist have for switching the meal?
By the way, this image and at least a bit of the Ebell story have been available online at the American Museum of Photography website since 1998 — that’s BG (Before Google.)
–Oh… and if you like ghost stories, check out http://www.photographymuseum.com/believe1.html .
Affective Education (2)
I’m teaching excerpts from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as the opening text in my freshmen comp class this time around. I’ve had a love/hate relationship going with that book for a long time, and one of the points…