Photograph Of An Apache Maiden Displaying Two Baskets And A Water Jar

WITTICK, GEORGE BEN [PHOTOGRAPHER]

Publication: Privately photographed, n d (ca 1881), N P

5 1/4" x 8 1/2" (11 1/8" x 14 3/4" framed) photograph of an Apache Maiden by Western photographer George Ben Wittick. He traveled with Matilde Coxe Stevenson, the first woman to work in the Southwest as an ethnologist, on her ethnographic survey of Arizona in 1881. In 1885, she became President of the Women's Anthropological Society of America. George Benjamin Wittick was a photographer born in Pennsylvania, later moving to Illinois, and then out west in 1878 to pursue frontier photography. He first worked for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroads, but later established his first photography studio in Gallup, New Mexico. During his career, he photographed many subjects to include the railroad; southwestern landscapes such as Canyon de Chelly, the Navajo Reservation, and Pueblo scenes; and the Native peoples mostly the Apache, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni. He also painted scenes of the American expansion westward as well. He carried with him a collection of props for his photographs to include rifles, pistols, blankets, pottery, and more. Most of his photographs were taken outside using the natural sunlight against backdrops. His best known photographs were of Geronimo and Billy the Kid. In 1900, he established his last studio at Fort Wingate. He later died in 1903 of a rattlesnake bite at Fort Wingate, which was foretold by a Hopi priest. Photograph is well-mounted and an attractive rendering of a young Apache girl who is well dressed in her outfit as she displays some Apache baskets and a handsome water jar. Very good condition.

Inventory Number: 47212