1904 large format Card Mount Photograph of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Cowboy Performers including William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody himself taken while the Show was performing in Scotland.

The photos pictured here were a part of a collection which was the personal property of Buffalo Bill Cody and his family, and which descended directly in the Cody family to his great-granddaughter Patricia Ann “Patsy” Garlow – granddaughter of Cody’s daughter Irma.

ca1894 Cabinet Card Photograph of the daughter of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody – Irma Cody taken in the studio Brooklyn photographer Stacy.

Provenance: These fantastic Photographs descended directly in the family of Irma Louise Cody Garlow, Buffalo Bill Cody’s last surviving child. Buffalo Bill and his wife Louisa Frederici Cody (1843-1921) had four children but only their two daughters – Arta (1866-1904) and the baby Irma (1883-1918) lived to adulthood. Irma married Frederick Harrison Garlow Sr. (1880-1918) and had 3 children – Frederick Harrison Garlow Jr. (1911-1985); William Joseph Garlow (changed name to Cody) (1913-1992) and Jane Cody Garlow (1909-1987). When Irma and Fred Garlow Sr. died within three days of each other during the influenza pandemic of 1918, the three young children were cared for by their Grandmother Louisa, wife of Buffalo Bill Cody. Fred Garlow Jr. married Margaret Southerland and they had two children Patricia Ann (b.1948) and Mark Frederick (b. 1952). The Photographs that we acquired were the property of Patricia Ann “Patsy” Garlow, Buffalo Bill’s direct great-granddaughter. It was among the property of the Cody-Garlow family and was originally the property of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his wife.

1894 large format Card Mount Photograph of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his wife Louisa Federici Cody taken by Brooklyn photographer Stacy.

Many of these Photographs spent most of the last half of the 20th century on loan to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center of the West and bear BBHC index numbers on the versos. We were also told that any of the items with tack holes were displayed on the walls of one of Cody’s homes including the TE Ranch, the Bobcat Ranch (usually Irma’s home), the Pahaska Tepee and his residence in North Platte – Scout’s Rest Ranch.

ca1910 Real Photo Postcard / Photograph of the Yellowstone Hunting Lodge of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody known as the “Pahaska Tepee” in winter.

The photographs included in this collection varied greatly, from some likely one of a kind Photographs taken with a snapshot camera and printed out as Real Photo Postcards, photos which were likely given as a mementos to Cody by the photographers,  a number of personal photographs taken by Stacy in the photographer’s studio and at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show grounds during the 1894 Season (during which the Show performed at Ambrose Park in Brooklyn, New York for the entire summer), etc.

ca1910 Real Photo Postcard / Photograph of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody with his close friend Native American Lakota Chief Iron Tail and a man believed to be Captain Jack Crawford on the show grounds of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

One postcard pictures the “fairgrounds” at Bourg, France with a herd of livestock grazing on the small plot. The Postcard is addressed to “Col. Cody Buffalo Bill” at Reims. The message and the Postmark are dated July 10, 1905 and the message appears to have been written by an Advance Man for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West named Dean.  Apparently “Dean” was scouting possible locations where Buffalo Bill’s Wild West might be able to appear during the European tour that was taking place in 1905. It seems that the fairgrounds at Bourg was too small to accommodate the show and “Dean” was reporting this directly to Buffalo Bill.

1905 Postcard written and addressed to William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody from an advance man of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Europe regarding a possible location for the Show to perform in Bourg, France. This Postcard was sent to Cody while the Show was performing at Reims.

We feel truly lucky to have been able to hold some of this history in our hands, and hope that you have enjoyed reading about it – and perhaps buying one of the items for yourself! We will be offering selected items from this collection over the next few week as part of our weekly eBay auctions.

For more information, please see our eBay listings.

Pictured above is an  original, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg / Civil War subject CDV Photograph, which was sold to support those children orphaned by the Civil War. This fascinating  CDV is titled “The Children of the Battle Field” and features a fantastic Albumen Photograph taken from the famous Ambrotype Photograph which was originally found clutched in the hands of an unidentified Union Soldier who died on the Battle Field at Gettysburg.

The three young children pictured here are identified in printed text on the card mount below the photo as “Frank. / Fredrick. / Alice.”. Printed text on the back of the mount reads: “The Children of the Battlefield. / This is a copy of the Ambrotype found in the hands of Sergeant Humiston of the 154th Regiment of New York Volunteers, as he lay dead on the Battle-Field of Gettysburg. The copies are sold in furtherance of the national Sabbath School to found in Pennsylvania an Asylum for dependent Orphans of Soldiers in memorial of our Perpetuated Union”. Further text on the reverse reads “This Picture is private property and cannot be copied without wrongdoing the Soldier’s Orphans for whom it is published”.

Here is a “Sketch” written in 1863 detailing the story of “The Children of the Battlefield”:

“Few readers of the public journals will fail to remember that, after the battle of Gettysburg, a dead soldier was found on the field, clasping in his hand an ambrotype of his three little children. No other incident of the present fratricidal war is known to have so touched the heart of the nation. For months after the battle, the soldier’s name, and the home of his family, were a mystery. The ambrotype found within his clasped hands was obtained by J. Francis Bourns, M.D., of Philadelphia, who had the picture photographed, in the hope that its circulation might lead to the discovery of the family, and the soldier’s own recognition, and, at the same time, that the sales of the copies might result in a fund for the support and education of the little ones thus left fatherless. Publicity was also given to the incident in many newspapers throughout the country. From various quarters letters of affecting inquiry were soon received; but still the mystery of the soldier was unsolved. At length, in the month of November, a letter arrived with the intelligence that a soldier’s wife at a little town on the Allegheny River, in Western New York, had seen the account of the picture in a religious paper, the American Presbyterian, of Philadelphia, – a single copy of which was taken in the place. She had sent her husband such a picture, and had not heard from him since the sanguinary struggle at Gettysburg. With trembling anxiety she awaited the reply and the coming of the picture. A copy of it came, and was the identical likeness of her own children, and told the painful story that she was a widow and her little ones were orphans. The unknown soldier was thus ascertained to be Amos Humiston, late of Portville, Cattaraugus county, New York, sergeant in the 154th N.Y. Volunteers.”.

A glass plate showing the aftermath of The Battle of Gettysburg titled “A Harvest of Death.” This image was taken by Timothy H. O’Sullivan for Alexander Gardner circa July 5-6, 1863. It is courtesy of the Library of Congress.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

An early Billings, Montana photographer, Alfred Baumgartner had a studio on Minnesota Avenue which opened in 1906 and closed just a few years later. Little is known of his work except that he was certainly a true Western Photographer – had a “cowgirl” in his employ at the studio and most of his surviving works are in studio portraits of local Billings, Montana residents. We recently purchased a small collection of simply fantastic and stunningly beautiful, Art Photo style portraits of Native American Crow who lived on the expansive Crow Indian Reservation south of Billings, that were taken and copyrighted in 1906 by Alfred Baumgartner.

As far as we can tell Baumgartner, never published this or any of the Crow Images in this wonderful collection as we can find only a single example of a Native American Photograph by Baumgartner in any museum or library collection (that photograph is of Crow Chief Plenty Coups and is held in the collection of the Yellowstone Western Heritage Center- image can be found here). We believe this beautiful Photograph may be the only known example or at the very least exceptionally rare.

Each Photograph in this collection is very much in the style of Carl Moon with a soft, warm “feel” to the Image and a respectful treatment of the subject, and most features a wonderfully appropriate and beautiful painted backdrop and the high quality and stunning beautiful, embossed card mount that complete the artistic presentation. There is text in a number of the negatives, or stamped on the recto, that reads “Baumgartner Studio, Billings, Mont.”.

Studio full length Photographic seated portrait of an unidentified Crow Woman    dressed in a beautiful, elk tooth tunic and wearing a multi-strand necklace and agency blanket.

 Photographic portrait of an unidentified Crow Warrior dressed in traditional garb with an elaborate, multi-strand necklace and with typical Crow hair style along with his wife. Also in the Photo is a second Crow brave dressed in much more western style clothing with his wife and young child . (We feel that we have seen this Crow Brave at the left before but we have been unable to identify him. Any information regarding his identity would be greatly appreciated.)

Studio full length portrait Photograph of an unidentified Crow Warrior dressed in traditional garb with an elaborate, multi-strand necklace and with typical Crow hair style. (We feel that we have seen this Crow Brave before but we have been unable to identify him. Any information regarding his identity would be greatly appreciated.)

This Photograph is a half figure, studio portrait of Strikes the Iron dressed in a wonderful, elk tooth tunic.  (The subject is not identified but the wife of Chief Plenty Coups was photographed numerous times in her life and she is easily recognizable.)

This Photograph is a full figure, studio portrait of the Plenty Coups and his wife Strikes the Iron dressed in a combination of traditional and western garb with Plenty Coups wearing his full eagle feather war bonnet and a pipe bone breastplate.

More information on Chief Plenty Coups:

The last traditional Chief of the Crow Nation, Plenty Coups was a visionary that led his people from the ‘Buffalo Days’ into the 20th century. He was an accomplished statesman and ambassador well known by several US Presidents and foreign leaders. Chief Plenty Coups best illustrated the close bond between the US and Crow Nation when, in 1921, he offered his war bonnet and coups sticks at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In his speech, he promised the allegiance of Crow warriors to fight any enemy of the United States. His promise has been upheld countless times in wars or armed conflicts since that gathering. The Chief was a leader by example – he was a productive farmer and stockman, expert steward of his 1885 allotment, and a supporter of education. In 1928 Plenty Coups and his wife, Strikes the Iron, willed their home and land as a place for all cultures to come together in a cooperative nature. Their homestead is now Montana’s Chief Plenty Coups State Park. The Chief did not dedicate this location to glorify himself or his deeds, but to honor the culture of the Crow Nation and to bring people together.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

This Photograph has absolutely no identification, nor a photographer’s mark but our extensive online research turned up the fascinating story of this wonderful image. As far as the photographer is concerned, we know that Warren King Morehead (pictured at the left) was the only news reporter on site in the days following Wounded Knee that had “his own photographer”. There is some confusion in many of the pictures associated with Morehead, because on top of having “his own photographer”, he also in many instances took photos himself. In this particular case it appears most likely that Morehead engaged one of the few photographers who were present at Pine Ridge in the days following the “Battle”, all of whom were employed by George Trager.

The Photo is a truly amazing tableaux with Warren King Moorehead seated wearing a revolver in a holster attached to a belt loaded with cartridges. A large caliber, double barreled shotgun leans against a clock behind Mooreheads chair. Pine Ridge and Deadwood, South Dakota Deputy U. S. Marshall George Bartlett sits at a table writing furiously. Bartlett also has a substantial six gun in a holster at his belt and a beautiful, Winchester Repeating rifle on the table in front of him. The Indian Police Sentry also wears a revolver in a holster on rig studded with cartridges and holds his Springfield rifle in front of him. This room is cluttered but certainly chock full of weapons with a large caliber rifle leaning against the wall behind the unidentified gentleman and another rifle on the desk to the right of Moorehead.

We were able to identify the folks in this Photograph from the caption printed under the Newspaper illustration taken directly from the Image. The caption reads: “Where the graphic dispatches which have appeared in the daily press during the past fortnight where written. The figure on the left is the writer of the accompanying article. The Indian police sentry on the right was guarding the ravine back of the house and was called in to be photographed”. The accompanying article was written by Moorehead (thus identifying him in the photo) and we could easily identify Bartlett (from other portraits) who was Moorehead’s friend and Indian language translator. The location was somewhat of a mystery until we discovered a photograph published on page 124 of the volume titled “Eyewitness at Wounded Knee” (Jensen, Paul and Carter; Nebraska State Historical Society, 1991). That image shows Marshall George Bartlett standing in front of the combination Post Office and Store owned by Louis Mousseau with its small attached log cabin residence. The caption led us to believe that the Image offered here was taken in the residence of Mousseau. That caption reads “The first news stories of the killings at Wounded Knee were written in the small log cabin shown here, just behind the Wounded Knee Post Office… The small cabin was the home of Louis Mousseau, a French-mixed blood, who operated the combination Post Office and store. This was the nucleus of a small community. There was a day school, a little used Presbyterian church and a nearby dance lodge. George Bartlett (standing) had a financial interest in the store.”. The caption to this photograph seems to identify the location of the Photo offered here (by its reference to the earliest reports of Wounded Knee and the connection with George Bartlett) but also likely identifies the unknown white man in the image as the owner of the home – Louis Mousseau.

George E. Bartlett was a quite fascinating character – a U.S. Marshal for Pine Ridge Agency as well as for a city west of there already infamous as Deadwood, South Dakota. Bartlett had worked as a sales representative for the gunpowder company and also ran a small trading post of his own on a creek through part of the Pine Ridge Reservation. From his wild days as a Pony Express rider and then Marshal in Deadwood, Bartlett had picked up the Indian name “Huste,” which was explained to be a dialect word for “Wounded Knee”. Bartlett had been sent to Pine Ridge in hopes that he could negotiate an end to the “Ghost Dance Troubles”.

In early 1890 Bartlett had invited a young writer / archeologist / anthropologist by the name of Warren King Moorhead out to visit him and had taken him around to the camps and settlements of the Lakota Sioux across the Nebraska/South Dakota border. After the relative success of the author’s novel “Wanneta” (which included much material gathered in this earlier visit) Bartlett had continued to suggest Moorehead come out again to write about this Ghost Dance phenomenon. With the support of an editor at “The Illustrated American”, Moorehead traveled to Chadron, Nebraska where Bartlett owned a ranch, and quickly found himself welcomed in the camp of Red Cloud, a greatly respected Lakota leader.

Moorehead never claimed to speak any of the Lakota dialects he encountered, but the articles he later wrote included a variety of Indian words, and of course his friend and guide George Bartlett spoke a number of Sioux tongues quite well. During this time Moorhead took some of the only photographs of the Ghost Dance ceremony seen before the Wounded Knee Massacre. After almost eight weeks of travel and camping among the various settlements across the Pine Ridge area, he was called into the headquarters of Gen. John R. Brooke, commanding officer of the Department of the Platte. According to Moorehead’s journal, Brooke informed him that as he was the only correspondent who spoke the “hostiles” language, and was accepted enough to overnight in their camps, he was considered a liability to the Army as they tried to bring order to the Pine Ridge situation: so two soldiers would escort him directly to his quarters, watch him pack, and take him to the next train east. Bartlett, however, remained behind and is seen in various photographs taken by Trager and W. R. Cross in the days following the Wounded Knee Massacre. Moorhead returned to Pine Ridge just after New Years Day 1891 and began reporting on the aftermath of the massacre. George Trager and his Northwestern Photographic Company photographers are best known for the Photographs taken in the days leading up to the Battle of Wounded Knee and for those taken of the aftermath of that bloody massacre.

For more information, please see our eBay listing.

Annie Oakley, the iconic American champion sharpshooter and trick-shot artist, was born Phoebe Ann Moses in a rural western border county of Ohio. Oakley’s amazing talent and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar.

Born in 1860, Annie was the sixth of Jacob and Susan Moses’ eight children. Her father, who had fought in the War of 1812, died in 1865 at age 65 from pneumonia and overexposure in freezing weather. Her mother married Daniel Brumbaugh, had a ninth child, Emily, and was widowed a second time. In 1870, Annie and her sister were admitted to an orphanage and within a few months she was “bound out” to a local family to help care for their infant son, on the false promise of fifty cents a week and an education. She spent about two years in near-slavery to them, where she endured mental and physical abuse. She would often have to do boys’ work. One time the wife put Annie out in the freezing cold, alone, to survive. Annie referred to them as “the wolves.” Even in her autobiography, she kindly never told the couples real name. When, in the spring of 1872, she reunited with her family, her mother had married a third time, to Joseph Shaw.

Annie began trapping at a young age, and shooting and hunting by age eight to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She sold the hunted game for money to locals in Greenville, as well as restaurants and hotels in southern Ohio. Her skill eventually paid off the mortgage on her mother’s farm when Annie was 15.

Oakley soon became well known throughout the region. During the spring of 1881, the Baughman and Butler shooting act was being performed in Cincinnati. Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer Francis E. Butler (1850–1926), an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet per side (roughly equivalent to $2,000 of today’s money) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost, that he, Butler, could beat any local fancy shooter. The hotelier arranged a shooting match between Butler and the 15-year-old Oakley. The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall, 15-year old named Annie. After missing on his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. He began courting Oakley, and they married on June 20, 1882. The couple never had children.

In 1885 Butler and Annie joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West – and the rest, as they say, is history!

An 1890’s, cabinet card photograph has recently come to light which is believed to be a previously unknown portrait of shooting champion and renowned trick shot artist Annie Oakley. The photo is by Waltermire of Sioux City, Iowa, and depicts a female trick shot artist that bears a striking resemblance to Annie Oakley. The young woman is pictured making adjustments to a pump-action target rifle (actually a Colt Lightning small frame 22 pump action rifle) and surrounded by sharpshooter targets, American flags, and a second target rifle. The image has never been seen before, and although the woman pictured bears a striking resemblance of Annie, it has not as yet been definitively identified as being a portrait of the woman respectfully nicknamed (by Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Tribal Chief and Holy Man Sitting Bull) “Watanya Cicilla” (rendered “Little Sure Shot” in public advertisements). Given the content of the photograph and the strong resemblance of the young woman to Annie Oakley, there is a growing confidence that this is a previously unknown portrait of the iconic female sharpshooter – one Oakley historian and researcher has offered the following comment:

“I’ve seen a lot of cabinet cards people have thrown out there with Annie’s name as a suspect. This is the first one I’ve seen where I think it may be the real deal…”

The photograph depicts a young, female trick shot artist working with what appears to be a clay pigeon on the stock of the pump action Colt 22 caliber rifle. She is seated on a chair and holds the rifle straight out in front of her. Behind her is a painted background and an array of American Flags. To the right of the young woman we see a second target rifle and a number of targets and other accouterments, which one would associate with a trick shot artist in a Wild West Show. The mount is also printed with the photographer’s credits of Waltermire of Sioux City, Iowa. We know that on September 22, 1896, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (with Annie Oakley as a member of the cast) performed at Sioux City, Iowa, and it is entirely possible that this is when the Photograph was taken.

Because this image has never been seen before, and the sharpshooter pictured is not identified in any way, we, as yet, cannot state definitively that the young woman pictured is “without a doubt” Annie Oakley. It seems almost impossible to believe that there was another female sharpshooter, who resembled Annie Oakley to this extent, that would have been photographed in the manner seen here, and who was of such notoriety that the photographer felt it unnecessary to identify in any way.

If you’d like to learn more about this piece, further details can be found at our eBay listing.

A macabre yet fascinating presentation photo album has been recently discovered among the offerings from a Connecticut Estate. The Album contains the final, pre-execution photo portraits of the 22 Men executed by the State of Connecticut between December 18, 1894 and March 29, 1912 at the Connecticut State Prison in Wethersfield. This simply amazing, one-of-a-kind Photo Album was put together by a correctional officer by the name of (amazingly enough) James E. Officer (yes, he really was “Officer Officer,” not a literary construct like Heller’s “Major Major”) and was presented to another correctional officer by the Name of “M. J. Redding.”

We were honestly unaware of the fact that apparently it was the policy of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield to dress the men on Death Row in a suit and take a final portrait before they were hanged for their crime. Somehow, Officer Officer obtained the original photographs taken of each of the 22 men hanged by the State of Connecticut between December 18, 1894 and March 29, 1912, and mounted those portraits in a photo album along with neatly handwritten text identifying the condemned man by name, his place and date of birth, the date he was convicted, his crime, the place and date of his crime, the date he was sentenced to death, the dates of any reprieves, and (finally) the date and manner of his execution.

The album itself measures approx. 7 1/4″ x 5 5/8″ and is a generic, photograph album of the mid 19th-century. Each photograph of the condemned prisoner measures 3 1/8″ by 3 7/8″ and are essentially identical in form and format. In each photograph, the condemned man is dressed in a suit and tie (in a number of the photos it appears that the condemned are dressed in the very same suit and tie) and most of the images depict a man with a stunned, frightened, horrified and/or vacant countenance. The looks on the faces of these men alone are a study in the horrors of capital punishment, and the shock and horror of those faced with the reality of their own death. We have never seen anything like the images contained in this album, and we feel that the images contained here are among the most graphic, though at the same time incredibly subtle, statements in support of the abolishment of the barbaric practice of capital punishment – enough said.

The first page of the album features a presentation inscription that reads “Officer James E. Officer / to / Officer M. J. Redding. / 9, April, ’47.” The next 21 leaves of the album feature a single portrait photograph of an executed man with the details of his life and crime, as stated above. The 22nd page contains a portrait of convicted murderer Andrea Tanganelli, but without any manuscript information. The next few pages of the album have cut out corners identical to those it insert the Photos found on the previous pages, but these pages are blank and it is our best guess that Officer Officer had planned to continue this morbid collection, perhaps including those 32 men executed between 1912 and 1947 (when he dated this presentation album), but for some (perhaps thankful) reason was prevented from doing so. The actual story of the assembly of this album will likely never be known, but the simply amazing content represents a unique and likely never again available insight into the faces and souls of a group of men on death row at the turn of the 20th century – a group populated mostly by immigrants who somehow found themselves facing death in a country far from their home.

If you’d like to learn more about this piece, further details can be found at our eBay listing.