Daniel Sedgley Mitchell is a photographer best known for his series of stereoscopic views of the Black Hills in 1876, his Indian portraits from the Red Cloud Agency in 1877, and his photographs of the

Oklahoma Land Rush Oklahoma Land Rush may refer to: *the Oklahoma portion of the Land Rush of 1889 The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands of former Indian Territory, which had earlier been assigned to the Creek and Semino ...

in 1889.

Early life

Born in 1838 in York County, Maine, Mitchell began his photographic career as an errand boy in a

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

gallery in Maine at the age of nine. During his early years he worked in a number of photographic galleries, ranging from New York City to Boston to Canada.

In the West

About 1874, Mitchell departed Boston, leaving behind his wife and children. He apparently first stopped briefly in Kansas. In late 1875, he had opened a studio on Eddy Street in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. In the spring of 1876, he headed north to the Black Hills with his camera, spending the summer making images among the mines. After returning to Cheyenne, he sold his Black Hills stereoviews and continued to produce portraits for the public. In January 1877, he produced portraits of Brigadier General

George Crook George R. Crook (September 8, 1828 – March 21, 1890) was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. During the 1880s, the Apache nicknamed Crook ''Nantan ...

and of the

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

board for Colonel

Joseph J. Reynolds Joseph Jones Reynolds (January 4, 1822 – February 25, 1899) was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars. Early life and career Reynolds was born in Flemingsbur ...

. In the spring of 1877, he joined partnership with Joseph H. McGowan and traveled along the Union Pacific Railroad, taking portraits and selling his Black Hills views. In the fall of 1877, he apparently visited the Red Cloud Agency where he took portraits of a majority of the

Oglala The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

and Arapaho headmen. In the spring of 1878, Mitchell and McGowan settled in Omaha where they established the Great Western Photographic Company. Their focus was to mass-produce and market Mitchell's two series of photographs as well as a third series, taken by Charles Howard. The partnership dissolved in the fall of 1878. Mitchell then opened a portrait studio in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, in partnership with May J. Cannell, whom he later married.

Final years

Mitchell next moved to Norfolk, Nebraska; then to Galesburg, Illinois, and finally in 1889, moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, where he produced an important photographic series of the land rush. Mitchell died in Guthrie in 1929.

Examples of photographs

Indian portraits

The largest surviving collection of Mitchell's Indian portraits from the Red Cloud Agency were preserved by Captain John G. Bourke, former aide-de-camp to Brigadier General

. Some of the images are pasted within his diaries, preserved at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Another large number of images were donated to the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. The Nebraska State Historical Society also preserves a number from Bourke's collection.

Bibliography

*Ephriam D. Dickson III, "Capturing the Lakota Spirit, Photographers at the Red Cloud & Spotted Tail Agencies," ''Nebraska History'', Spring/Summer 2007. American photographers 1838 births 1929 deaths People from York County, Maine People from Guthrie, Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-stub