Jeremy Rowe Vintage Photography

A Photographic History of Arizona 1850 - 1920

by Jeremy Rowe
©2002 jeremy Rowe Vintage Photography

Introduction

Arizona was the West.

Spanish explorers Cabeza de Vaca, Marcos de Niza and Estavan sought riches and cities of gold there. Mountain men like Kit Carson, Pauline Weaver and "Bill Williams trapped its rivers and streams as they pushed the American Boundaries South and West. Explorers from Sparks, Bartlett, and Walker to Wheeler and Powell sent first stories and sketches, then photographs of the scenic beauty and potential wealth of the Western wilderness. Cochise, Geronimo, Natchez, Pedro and scores of Native American leaders who shaped the development of our country's growth called Arizona home.

The Butterfield stage and first wagon, then rail routes that joined the nation crossed the deserts and mountains of what would become the 49th state. Military careers of major figures from Freemont and Kearny to Sheridan, McDowell, Crook and Pershing were formed, for good or bad, by their actions on campaigns in Arizona. Lawmen, scouts and gunfighters who became icons of the West, the Earps, "Doc" Holiday and "Big Nose Kate", Commodore Perry Owens, Tom Horn, the Clantons, and Lowreys, and Al Sieber all left their mark on the territory. Stories and images of events like the capture of Geronimo, the gunfight at the O. K. Corral, the Pleasant Valley War, Pancho Villa's raids and the gold, silver, and copper strikes made banner headlines worldwide and made Arizona the epitome of the West.

Arizona has a wild and significant past that was documented by hundreds of adventurous photographers. Many created collections of photographs, some identified their work, others left only anonymous images and albums to mark their life's work. Compared to other Western states, and despite the importance of the personalities and events that occurred there, the number of Arizona images is relatively small. Unfortunately, for reasons that may include the frontier lifestyle and rough conditions, itinerant nature of much of their business, or other factors, few of Arizona's pioneer photographers left much information about their own lives and experiences.

As a frontier territory many images of Arizona document the individuals, scenes and events of life in the forts and military outposts and wild mining towns, and growing communities of the West. The sparse, decentralized population kept the local scale of photographic operations relatively small, with itinerant photographers far outnumbering established studios until the 1890's. Early Arizona drew many of the nation's finest photographers, and many entrepreneurial lesser talents, to feed the demand for images of the Native Americans, cacti, Grand Canyon, and budding mineral wealth in the last frontier of the 19th century.

The goal of my research is to identify the stories behind important historic images of Arizona in the context of the development of the territory into a state, and to provide a reference tool to assist in identifying images taken in the state before 1920. For additional information refer to my book Photographers in Arizona 1859 - 1920 A History and Directory, which includes several helpful components:

- a brief overview of the history of photography in Arizona from its beginning in the 1850s to its maturation in the decade after statehood.

- an index of photographers active in Arizona between roughly 1850 to 1920, including rough years of operation, partnerships and business locations. (Note: This is a work in progress and will hopefully continue to grow and evolve. Please contact me if you have any additions or corrections. Your help is greatly appreciated.)

- a selection of images of Arizona to demonstrate the range and diversity, and to give the reader a feel for the life in Arizona during this exciting time.

- representative photographic imprints and advertisements of Arizona photographers.

The Birth of the Territory

The lure of wealth drew the first Spanish explorers into what is now Arizona. Though Cabeza de Vaca and Marcos de Niza never found the legendary seven cities of gold, Spanish settlers did find gold, silver, and copper and operated mines in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Missions San Xavier del Bac and San Cayetano del Tumacacori were established in 1700-01, and Tucson adjacent to the Mission San Xavier followed a few decades later.

American trappers first visited the Colorado, Gila, and other rivers of the area in the 1820s. Kit Carson first explored along the Gila in 1827, returning time and again over the next twenty five years. Bill Williams explored the lands above the 35th parallel and French trapper Pauline Weaver visited Pima Villages in 1832. By the early 1840s, trappers and explorers reached the Hopi villages in the North and had cris crossed the territory with the trails that would become crucial trade routes that opened the West.

The Mexican war focused the attention of the nation on America's Southern border. Many of the trappers and early explorers became guides for the American troops. Kit Carson returned to Arizona and served as a guide for the expeditions of Generals Kearny and Freemont. The Mormon Battalion formed under Kearny in Leavenworth, Kansas was charged with capturing the area which is now Arizona, New Mexico, and part of California for the U.S. The Battalion reached Southern Arizona in the winter of 1846 and soon took Tucson which had been evacuated by the Mexicans. The group continued North to Pima and Maricopa Villages and the Salt River Valley and continued to explore Arizona on their travels West into California.

The treaty of Guadelupe Hildago at the end of the Mexican War in 1848 established the Gila River as the Southern boundary. The New Mexico Territory which included Arizona was established in 1850 with the Gila River as its Southern border. The Gadsten Purchase, in 1853 extended the border, creating the outline of the United States that we know today.

The lure of California brought thousands across the territory on the mail coaches and trails that had been pioneered by the trappers, military expeditions and surveys. It has been estimated that at least 60,000 travelers crossed Arizona through Apache Pass, Sonoita, Tucson, and across the Colorado at Yuma on their way to California and the gold fields. Throughout the rest of the nation photography had been firmly established as a business and art and millions of images were being produced each year. During the early 1850s, the "mirror with a memory", the daguerreotype, was the photographic format of choice and was practiced by thousands of full and part time operators. Despite the significant volume of traffic across the territory and the existence of daguerreotypes of California, New Mexico and the other surrounding states, no daguerreotypes which can be documented as having been made in the Arizona portion of the New Mexico Territory have been located to date.

Early images of Arizona came from sketches and illustrations made by travelers or explorers. The personnel involved in the Bartlett survey of 1852-53 included an artist , Henry Cheever Pratt, who recorded the exploration in his sketchbooks. The first sketchbook includes images of the trip down the coast from San Francisco, across to Yuma, and up the Gila to the Pima Villages. Initially, illustrations from the sketches were published in reports on the expedition, and years later, the sketches were synthesized into a series of paintings.

Relations with Native Americans were volatile, shifting from neutral acceptance to hostility as their territories were encroached upon. The Navajo were involved in many early conflicts and the first military post in the Territory, Fort Defiance was built by Col. Sumner in 1852 on the Navajo reservation. Other tribes, most notably the Apache, Mojave, and Yuma were involved in conflicts, many in response to abuse and encroachment by the early settlers and the nation followed the events in Arizona.

Word of the rich mineral deposits in the area ceded by Mexico in the Gadsten Purchase drew initial interest in Arizona. The Arizona Mining and Trading Company was formed in San Francisco in 1854 to explore and commercially develop mines in Arizona. Rich copper ore was found in the South West portion of the Territory near the old Spanish mines close to present day Ajo. Ore was hauled to San Francisco and shipped to Swansea, Wales for refining. The ore was rich enough to turn a profit for the investors despite the tremendous shipping costs.

Though thousands were traveling through Arizona in the 1850s, few called it their home. By 1856, the largest settlement was at Tubac, with about 800 residents and Tucson boasted a population of about 500. The first census in 1860 gave the aggregate population of the Territory as 6,482, identified as 2,421 white (including 132 from Fort Yuma, California), 21 free colored, and 4,040 Indians. Military staff of Forts, Arivaipa, Buchanan, Defiance, and Mojave. Tucson boasted the largest population of 521, with 109 at nearby San Xavier.

The First Photographs

Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives is one of the earliest persons acknowledging making photographs in Arizona. Ives piloted the U. S. Explorer to chart the course of the Colorado River in the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers survey of 1857 and 58. The Ives expedition marked a number of firsts related to Arizona history. At his Northernmost travels along the Colorado River, Ives was likely the first white man to reach the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Photographs attributed to Ives and the expedition are some of the earliest photographic images of Arizona located to date.

Popular interest in Arizona reached an early peak when Captivity of the Oatman Girls was published in 1857. Six years earlier, en route to California on the Santa Fe trail, the Oatman family had been attacked by Apaches. Daughters Olive and Ann had been abducted and been held as captives. After another survivor, brother Lorenzo Oatman, recovered from his wounds he began to search Western Arizona for his sisters. Ann died in captivity soon after the attack, but in 1856 after living with several Arizona tribes, Olive was rescued by Lorenzo near Yuma.

The story of the trials of Olive received national distribution and the book sold through several editions. The engraved image of Olive after her rescue and return to civilization in the frontice of the book was taken from an ambrotype. At least two ambrotype and a number of cartes-de-visites portraits of Olive Oatman with her chin tatoos exist today. Though these images of Ms. Oatman were likely taken after her return to civilization they focused significant attention and interest on the potential danger faced by travelers and settlers in Arizona.

Arizona was recognized as a territory in 1862 by both the Union and Confederate governments. After the war, Arizona became part of the Military District of California under General Irwin McDowell. Throughout the rest of the century, Civil War military figures such as Generals Orlando Willcox, Nelson Miles,George Stoneman, and George Crook, and Colonels A. Katz and Crittenden played important roles in shaping the Territory.

The first military camp in Arizona was Fort Defiance, established in North Eastern Arizona in 1849. Fort Buchanan was established in Southern Arizona in 1857 to protect the wagon and stage routes. Fort Mojave followed about a year later in the North Western part of Arizona on Colorado. Another important early post, Fort McDowell in Central Arizona was established in 1865 providing the skeleton of military protection for the territory.

As California continued to develop and word of discoveries of gold in Arizona drew miners to the territory, travel increased, and additional forts were established. Fort Bowie located in Apache Pass (1862) on the Southern route was in the heart of the Apache lands at the Eastern end of the stage route. Fort Whipple (1863-64) joined Ft. McDowell in the central part of the state to protect Prescott and the rapidly developing Bradshaw mining districts.

The web of forts across the territory continued to develop as word of new strikes spread, or relations with local tribes became strained. Other camps which evolved into more established bases of operation included Camp Lincoln (later Fort Verde) in 1864-66, and Camp Mc Pherson (later Camp Date Creek) in 1866. Fort Apache (1869) in the West-Central part of the territory completed the basic framework of military protection of travelers and the growing number of miners and settlers calling Arizona their home.

The first territorial census, taken in 1864, listed two persons as photographers Francis A. Cook and Charles Rogers. Little is known about the activities of these two men during this time. Rogers left no record of his activities, while Mr. Cook became an important figure in Arizona photography later in the decade.

J. C. Gaige was licensed as a photographer in New Mexico in 1863 and was active in the Military District of New Mexico in 1865, and at Fort Sumner in 1866. Gaige later traveled in Arizona and is one of the first to advertise his services advertising simply as the "the photographer" in the Tucson Weekly Arizonan before he passed away at Camp Goodwin in July, 1869.

French occupation of Northern Mexico regularly raised nationalistic concerns as the West developed after the Mexican war and Gadsten Purchase. Just after the Civil War concern of potential Continental intervention in Southern Arizona may have been stimulated by a Frenchman with a camera. A French survey including a photographer tentatively identified as Rudolph D'Heureuse was active in Mexico and Southern Arizona about this time. A small body of stereoscopic photographs begins in Mazatlan and traces a route up the Baja coast into Southern Arizona ca 1865-68. Images include overviews of the ports and towns as well as mining works Yuma and Fort Mojave, and other as yet unidentified fortifications.

The First Gallery

The first photographic gallery located to date in the Arizona Territory appears to have opened in Prescott ca 1868-69. Francis A. Cook, a photographer, had arrived in Prescott about 1864. No documentation has been located indicating whether Cook operated as an itinerant or in a more formal studio. A notice in the January Arizona Weekly Miner indicated that Carlos Gentile had rented a room and "was taking photographs of Prescott, its people, and vicinity." Gentile had come to Arizona from British Columbia where he had been a photographer and explorer. Gentile had triggered the "Leach River gold flurry" in British Columbia in 1864 when he discovered gold adhered to the photographic plates he was washing in a stream. Sometime after opening a gallery in San Francisco in 1867, Gentile moved on to the Prescott area and was active until 1869 when he sold his camera to Cook and Nathan P. Pierce who planned to run a gallery in Prescott.

The Cook/Pierce gallery became an important fixture in the visual history of the state, being subsequently owned or used by many of the photographers active in Arizona for the next 20 years. Other owners and users of the gallery include E. M. Jennings, William McKenna, Mitchell, the operators working for William Williscraft, and traveling photographers such as Dudley Flanders. A stereograph ca 1875 on a Williscraft mount shows this gallery with its skylight and a trap door on the South side of the building with the optics of a solar enlarger open to sunlight. Several other images of the gallery building were made until at least the mid 1880's.

The Surveys

As they had in the 1840's and 50's, surveys continued to focus the interest of the country on Arizona. Alexander Gardener and William Bell, renowned for their studio work and photographic documentation of the Civil War, accompanied the Union Pacific Railroad Eastern Division survey in 1867 and 68. The photographs from this effort, also known as the Kansas Pacific Railway Survey, were primarily scenic documentation of the proposed route across Northern Arizona and had little commercial potential beyond the report of the survey published in 1869.

The photographers associated with the Powell and Wheeler surveys of the Colorado Plateau 1870s were entirely different matter, producing hundreds of images documenting the geography of the Canyons of the Colorado River and of the Native Americans of Arizona. The images from these surveys were used to support requests for each annual extension of funds from the U. S. Congress and competition between the photographers associated with the survey parties was fierce. Sets of stereographs, some in elaborate blue flocked boxes with embossed titles, and presentation albums of photographs were produced to support the lobbying efforts, and thousands of copies of the stereographs and large format images of the West taken by photographers including Timothy O'Sullivan, James Fennemore, John Hillers, William Bell, and E. O. Beaman were sold throughout the world.

The photographs from the Wheeler and Powell surveys made images of the life of tribes such as the Navajo, Pai-ute, Apache, Navajo and Hopi available to the world. The previously little known Grand Canyon joined Yosemite and the other natural wonders of the West as international curiosities. The resulting interest in Arizona that grew dramatically throughout the next decades drew photographers to the Territory to supply images for the exploding new markets.

The newspapers and periodicals of the time responded to the explosion of interest in the Wild West in the 1870s. Arizona was a microcosm of the mining strikes, conflicts with the Apache, and the outlaws and personalities of the West. The Territory quickly established its reputation as a wild outpost of civilization which was actively promoted in fact and fiction. Woodcuts and illustrations in print were supplemented with real photographs in formats such as cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, and stereographs sold by photographers who visited Arizona, or by those following the practice of "pirating", freely copying and distributing interesting images that they came across.

The rough lifestyle and difficult travel made photography difficult. Photographers used the wet-plate process, requiring them to carry glass plates, chemicals to sensitize and process their negatives, and a dark tent, in addition to their cameras. Since enlargement was difficult, typically a photographer would carry a camera for each size image that was to be produced. An exception was the stereo camera, which could produce stereographs and the popular cabinet card by changing lenses and septum. The small size of the stereo camera, permitting short exposures and relatively great depth of focus, made stereo the format of choice for many early Arizona photographers.

The Early Photographers

Carlos Gentile, who had operated in Prescott a few years earlier appears once again in 1871, as a member of a prospecting party in the Pinal Mountains with then Governor Anson P. Safford. Gentile operated a gallery in Adamsville, a small town of about 400 known for Birchard's Mill which supplied flour to the forts in Arizona, and for its saloon. The gallery produced paper prints and ambrotypes and received an award for images of Arizona at the 8th Industrial Exposition in California in 1871. The titles of the images submitted for which Gentile received an Honorable Mention and was awarded a diploma the exhibition included:

1023. Ambrotype. Belles of Arivaipas.
1024. Ambrotype. South Wind Indian Belle.
1025. Ambrotype. Indian Group. Charles Gentile.
1026. Ambrotype. Bobtail, Indian Youth.
1027. Ambrotype. Old Rye, Indian Chief.
1028. Ambrotype. Indian Group.
1029. Ambrotype. Laughing Eyes, Indian Maiden.
1030. Ambrotype. Daisy, Indian Maiden.
1031. Ambrotype. Sunlight, Indian Maiden.
1032. Ambrotype. Springtime, Indian Maiden.
1033. Ambrotype. Male and Female Musician.
1034. Ambrotype. New Pie, Indian Chief.
1035. Twenty Photographs of Indian Scenery.
1036. Five Photographs of Arizona Squaws.
1037. Photographs. Group of Cueopa Indians.
1038. Irataba, Chief of the Mohaves.

Unfortunately, none of these images, nor any reproductions which can be attributed to them have been located to date.

Gentile was also involved in the planning, if not the realization, of an illustrated text about the Territory titled ARIZONA AS IT IS. In March of 1872, the San Diego Union carried the story about Mr. Charles Gentile, and his intent to publish a volume entitled "Arizona As It Is" illustrated by photographs.

"Mr Gentile has just returned from a two year tour through the territory and has placed his noted in the hands of Mr. John Melville who will write them up. The work will embrace a minute description of the military stations, with views of the most important of them, it will likewise describe the various towns and villages, both ancient and modern, scattered over the country. The descriptive portion will include a narrow and sterile border of the Territory that encloses an area of wonderful fertility;the Southern chains of mountains and the extinct volcanos of the North; the great rocks that rise abruptly out of the earth, both in the green valley and the desert plain. All of these will be treated separately and profusely illustrated. The mineral wealth of the country will receive especial attention, and views of the principle mines, and mining districts will illustrate the text. The ethnological department will consist of personal descriptions of every Indian tribe, and of the portion of the territory they inhabit, together with portraits of members of each tribe taken from life. The work is dedicated by permission to General Halleck and will be issued in monthly installments".

An interesting note is a strikingly similar book, Arizona As It Is, or the Coming Country, Compiled from notes of Travel During the Years 1874, 1875, and 1876 by Hiram C. Hodge was published by Hurd and Houghton of New York in 1877. The content of Hodge book is similar to that outlined by Gentile and Melville, but without the illustrations from photographs.

Dudley Flanders "Trip Through Arizona" in 1874

Another early effort to capitalize on the interest in Arizona involved Dudley Flanders and Henri Penlon, a pair of entrepreneurs from Los Angeles. Flanders and Penlon traveled the Northern route to Arizona through Fort Mohave, following the stage route to Prescott in November 1873. Penlon died in Prescott a few months later, but Flanders continued his photographic tour, working with other assistants, until November 1874. Producing stereographs and "life -sized portraits" (using the solar enlarger at Cook's gallery) Flanders made views in Prescott and the Verde Valley. In April, Flanders and Mr. Scott presented a lantern slide lecture illustrated with his images of Arizona. This event is the earliest record of the presentation of projected photographs in Arizona located to date. A review in the Arizona Miner stated:

"By invitation we visited Mr. Flanders' stereopticon presentation rehearsal last evening and were positively gratified at what we saw. His foreign views are simply splendid, and the views of camps and Indians here in the Territory are all that could be wished. We would suggest this entertainment as instructive and, we believe, will provide more than the money's worth to anyone who may choose to attend. His performance will continue for 4 evenings. Mr. Scott, assistant to Mr. Flanders, is an excellent hand in this line of business, and has done much credit to himself in the part he has performed in the preparation of these views."

Flanders headed South from Prescott in April, stopping in at stage stations in Wickenberg and Maricopa Wells, en route to Tucson where he repeated his stereopticon lectures at Levin's garden.

In July Flanders traveled from Tucson with a local photographer Adolpho Rodrigo, visiting the growing military forts such as Fort Bowie and Camp Grant, and the San Carlos Indian Reservation, photographing the Indian agents, chiefs, and General George Crook the Apache fighter and military head of Arizona. The result of the effort were a series of over 120 stereographs of the stage stops, forts, reservation, missions, towns, and personalities of the territory marketed as "A Photographic Album of a Trip Through Arizona by Flanders and Penlon" and "Scenes of Arizona".

The Late 1870s

Adolpho Rodrigo opened his gallery in Tucson at the corner of Courthouse and Maiden Lane in the summer of 1874. Like the Cook/Pierce gallery in Prescott, the Rodrigo gallery supported other photographers operating in Tucson, such as Henry Buehman, and itinerants like Flanders, who were active in the Southern part of the Territory. Whether due to the water, processing anomalies, heat or other causes, many images by attributed to this gallery (Buehman and Flanders in particular) unfortunately exhibit significant fading and deterioration.

The later half of the 1870s saw a continued increase in photographic activity in the Territory. General Crook and the initial control of the Apaches on reservations received tremendous national attention. As the surface mineral wealth and placer mining began to taper off, miners looked further and made rich strikes in gold, silver, and copper. Word of the continuing mineral wealth in the Territory spread quickly. Photographers were needed to document the mines and towns for potential development, make images of the events and activities of the native population, as well as to support the needs of the growing population for portraits.

Itinerants worked throughout Arizona, some leaving little evidence of their work, others staying on to create galleries and becoming successful businessmen as they marketed images to local merchants and by mail. The 1870's saw photographers typically established a presence in a town, travel to create images, and develop partnerships or business arrangements to extend their markets for images.

Yuma saw a gallery established on Main Street in 1874 by a father and son team, Joseph and Francis Parker who had previously operated in San Diego. Joseph returned to California a few years later, opening a gallery in Los Angeles in 1877. Joseph Parker returned to Arizona in the late 1880s with the Atlantic and Pacific Railway, working in Flagstaff ,Winslow, and later Tucson as an itinerant over the next 20 years.

Henry Buehman arrived from California in 1874, purchasing Rodrigo's gallery in 1875 and beginning a family dynasty that would serve Tucson for several generations. Buehman traveled extensively throughout Arizona and Mexico making images, promoting his work in local papers, and building his business selling frames, moldings, prints, and photographs including cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, stereographs, and large format images of Arizona and the West.

Buehman offered several series of stereographs marketed as "Arizona Scenery", and Scenes in Arizona" including hundreds of images of Tucson, mines such as Silver King , Toltec, and Picket Post, personalities such as John Clum, Diablo, and Eskiminzin, apache police and scouts at the San Carlos reservation, and studio still lifes of the cactus and reptiles of Arizona.

The gallery in Prescott saw several new owners. William McKenna acquired the gallery in August 1874 and operated it for a year before selling it to a local boot and shoemaker, William Williscraft. Various assistants were hired to operate the gallery as Williscraft apparently had little or no photographic training. The gallery produced tintypes and stereographs, distributed on mounts with a "Williscraft & Company" imprint. In 1876, an assistant, Schroeder, helped to create a traveling photographic "gallery on wheels" that made it at least as far as Camp Verde. Unfortunately the quality of the operators and assistants varied from poor to awful with valuable subjects veiled in fogged or softly focused images in most extent examples.

Daniel Francis Mitchell came to Prescott from San Francisco in 1877, soon taking over the Williscraft gallery on Cortez street. Renaming his studio the Capital Art Gallery, Mitchell produced high quality photographs of Prescott and Northern Arizona. Mitchell operated the gallery into the 1880s involving partnerships or business arrangements with other Arizona photographers including Erwin Baer.

George Rothrock came to Arizona from Bakersfield California traveling as an itinerant photographer in 1875. In 1876, Rothrock and a partner, Young, established a tent gallery on Main Street in Yuma selling ambrotypes, cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, and stereographs. The partners also presented magic lantern exhibitions at the Yuma courthouse and at Fort Yuma. Later that year, Rothrock and Young operated in a growing farming community established in Central Arizona to provide hay for the troops at Ft. McDowell, Phoenix.

After another year of traveling photographic activity across Arizona, Rothrock established a studio on Montezuma Street in Prescott, offering a catalog of his stereographic views of "Arizona Scenery". Rothrock returned to Phoenix in April and opened a studio initially at the News Depot, then at Loring's Bazaar on Washington. Rothrock again used a magic lantern exhibition as a promotional tool.

Rothrock continued to travel extensively throughout Arizona into the 1890's, operating an additional gallery in Tempe in 1893. Through his regular and extended travel through the Territory, his artistic sense, skill and emphasis on quality, Rothrock created an extensive record of one of the most exciting periods of the growth and development of the Territory produced by a single individual.

Travel in central Arizona had been by horse, wagon, or stagecoach. Development of the mines along the Colorado and Gila had been made possible by the steamboats that carried heavy equipment and ore. The state continued through the 1870's, but the arrival of the railroad was the watershed event for the future development of Arizona. The Southern Pacific extended from San Diego, reaching in Yuma in 1877, and Tucson in March, 1880. The Atlantic & Pacific provided travelers and developers with a route across Northern Arizona by the end of 1883.

Enoch Conklin working as a stereographer for the Continent Stereoscopic Company, was in Arizona in 1877 making images for commercial distribution. Conklin was in Yuma in September to document the completion of the railway bridge across the Colorado River, and the arrival of the first locomotive in Arizona. Continent produced a series of at lease half a dozen stereographs of this event. In addition, to the images of Yuma and Ehrenberg along the Colorado, Conklin traveled throughout the Territory making images of mining in the Santa Rita mountains, explorers on the Gila River,Tucson, and Prescott, and views of the Hopi.

Conklin apparently also acquired negatives or copied work from other Arizona photographers, whose uncredited work appears on Continent mount stereographs.
A chronicle of his trip, illustrated with engravings credited to the Continent Stereoscopic Company was published by the Mining Record Printing Establishment as Picturesque Arizona: Being the Result of Travels and Observations in Arizona During the Fall and Winter of 1877.

Camilius Sidney Fly previously of San Francisco, opened his first Arizona gallery on Freemont Street in Tombstone in 1878. Fly and his wife Mary, produced a significant body of work, images of the settlers and visitors of the growing mining and cultural center of the Southwest. Though no images were apparently made of Tombstone's most publicized event, the gunfight at the O. K. Corral, the gallery did make photographs of many of the West's notable figures.

The Studio Era of the 1880s

The richness of the strikes brought notoriety. Tombstone grew from a boom camp with a population of about 100 in 1879 to a city of 15,000 rivaling San Francisco as a cultural center by the time of the Earp/ Clanton shoot-out a few years later. Ironically, despite the dry climate, water was behind the demise of Tombstone. Mine shafts reached down to an underground aquifer and pumps were required to control the water seepage. When the pumps burned in 1886 and 1887 the flooding that resulted was never controlled and the mines, and Tombstone faded as a commercial center with photographers like Mr. and Mrs. Fly, Feldman, and Kemp, opening additional galleries in emerging communities across the territory.

National attention focused on Geronimo's escape from San Carlos in 1885 and his campaign of terror into New Mexico returning to Eastern Arizona in November. Sentiment against the Apache and Native Americans in general ran strong. Retaliation against the peaceful individuals for the actions of the renegades was a serious concern of the Territorial government and the Indian Rights Association. The fears were well founded, as evidenced by a $250 bounty was offered in February 1886 for the scalp of each renegade Apache presented to the Grant County N.M. Board of Commissioners.

General Crook led the campaign to track Geronimo and his band. Crook and Geronimo held a parley with Geronimo near Nacozari, Mexico in March 1886, where the ultimatum given by the U. S. Government, two years imprisonment in the East then return to the reservation in Arizona, was accepted by Geronimo. The meeting was documented by C. S. Fly, who accompanied the party and made additional images of the famous Apache warrior and his band.

After another escape and rampage through Southern Arizona, Geronimo and Natchez surrendered in August 1886 and were sent to Forts Pickens and Marion in Florida. Eventually, geronimo and the Apache were sent to Ft. Sill. Geronimo passed away near Ft. Sill in 1909.

Fly's name was immortalized for his images of General Crook's parlay with Geronimo, and images of his band. The series of photographs of Geronimo were reproduced in Harper's Weekly in 1886 and copies were sold widely. Despite Fly's attempt to protect the images with prominent copyright notices on each image, they were pirated and sold by other photographers.

To broaden their market beyond Tombstone, the Flys opened a second gallery on Washington Street in Phoenix in 1892, and expanded to Bisbee in 1897. After the death of Camellias in 1901, Mary continued the business, marketing photographs and printed images of Arizona until 1912.

Through the 1870s and into the 80s, itinerant photographers operated photographic galleries in primitive locations throughout Arizona. Charles Farciot, a clockmaker and engineer, operated a tiny adobe gallery in Pima Villages about 1879 and possibly another in Charleston outside of Tombstone in the early 1880s. Farciot traveled as far North as Silver King, Globe and McMillenville making images of mines. Extant images include stereographs and full plate photographs of the developing mines and town of Charleston. A letter by Farciot indicates that at least one purpose for his travels was scouting potential investments, sending images of promising properties Arizona to clients in the East.

Farciot left Arizona with Ed Schiefflin, the founder of the "Lucky Cuss" mine and several other residents of Tombstone on an early commercial expedition to Alaska. En route Farciot left the stereographic negatives with his brother-in-law in San Francisco. Alexander Edouart under the imprint of Edouart & Cobb, marketed the stereographs of Arizona by Farciot as "Arizona Views".

In April 1880, the Southern Pacific brought one of the most famous California photographers, Carleton Watkins, to Arizona. Though his stay lasted only a little over a month, Watkins produced a significant body of extremely high quality images of the Territory. Watkins made images of Yuma and vicinity, traveling along the Gila then to Tucson, then South to Millville and the emerging town of Tombstone which appears to have been his primary destination. After his return to San Francisco, Watkins included over 80 images of Arizona in his "Watkins New Series" of stereographs.

In 1880, Arizona saw the arrival of another giant of 19th century photography Ben Wittick. Wittick was one of the first to photograph the Hopi snake dance ceremony. As photographer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, Wittick traveled between his gallery in Santa Fe and Arizona, photographing the Grand Canyon, the construction of the railroad, and actively documenting the native American population until his death at Fort Wingate New Mexico in 1903, ironically from the bite of a rattlesnake he was taking to the Hopi.

J. C. Burge worked the Northern part of the Territory beginning in the early 1880s operating in "Old Town" Flagstaff. Burge traveled making images and moved his gallery to Globe City in 1883 where he produced images of the area and San Carlos reservation. Burge and a new partner, itinerant photographer James Hildreth from Utah, returned to Flagstaff, opening a gallery in "New Town" in June of 1884. Hildreth and Burge separated soon after, with Hildreth continuing as a traveling photographer, and Burge moving his operations to Kingman.

Burge formed a temporary partnership with Ben Wittick photographing the "Moqui" snake dance and offering views of Arizona and New Mexico at a temporary gallery in Flagstaff in 1885. Burge moved on to Kingston New Mexico in 1885, operating galleries in New Mexico and Texas over the next 12 years.

Elias Bonine of Los Angeles opened a gallery in Yuma in 1881. Bonine produced an extremely fine series of boudoir cabinet cards of Southern Arizona. Included were portraits of the Yuma and Mohave Indians, and the town of Yuma as it developed after the arrival of the railroad. Bonine traveled to the booming mines of Silver King and produced images of Pinal, Queen Creek and Pickett Post. Elias's cousin, Robert K. Bonine was also a photographer, operating in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. R.K. Bonine offered a series of curved mount stereographs of Ehrenberg, Yuma, and the mines of Pinal county whether he traveled west and made the images, or only marketed photographs made by Elias is not known. After a few years of operation Bonine left Yuma, moving his gallery to Pasadena.

A. Frank Randall operated out of Willcox and as an itinerant beginning about 1883. Randall is primarily known for his work documenting the Navajo, Hopi and Apache. Randall and Ben Wittick were involved in the creation of one of the finest groups of images of Native Americans of the West, a series of about 100 boudoir cabinet portraits, produced at and around the Fort from about 1883 to 1885.

The studio backgrounds for the photographs are similar, and props such as cactus, blankets and rifles appear repeatedly in many of these images. Most are also rich with props from the daily life of the subjects like baskets, pottery, jewelry and crafts. Some images in the series are credited to Randall in rubber stamped or printed labels on the reverse of the mount. Others have a "Wittick" credit inscribed in the emulsion of the negative, or are on Wittick imprinted mounts. Some are uncredited, and individual images have been found with credits which differ among examples.

Determining which photographer made a given image has become a significant mystery. One image, a portrait of Wittick with Peaches and two armed apache was obviously taken by Randall or an assistant. Though there are many theories and hypotheses, the relationship between Randall and Wittick in producing these incredible images has yet to be uncovered. Details about whether the images were jointly produced, if Randall and Wittick duplicated and exchanged some of the negatives, or if this work resulted from the shared use of a common studio space may never be known.

The photographs in this series depict the Navajo, Apache, Mohave and Hopi of Arizona and New Mexico. Subjects include chiefs such as Geronimo, Nana, Natchez, Mangas and Peaches as individual portraits, small groups, and with their wives and families.

Additional images depict the runners, medicine men, scouts, individuals living in the area, and exterior views of Fort Apache and its surroundings. It is unfortunate that so little detail has survived about the making of these historical images, and the confusion about credits compounds the mystery.

The Arizona Territory was a wild and colorful place, and the photographers of the period were often prime examples. A photographer named Kinney operating in Prescott was hung near Grapevine Station in 1878. Cicero Grime, operator of the "Cicero Grime Photographic Gallery" producing stereographs and tintypes in Globe City and Pinal narrowly escaped Kinney's fate after his arrest for robbing a stagecoach in 1882. Grime's partners were lynched, but he was saved from the gallows by the local sheriff, but was convicted and sentenced to serve his term in the Yuma Territorial Prison.

Andrew Miller, who came from Silver City, New Mexico to Globe in 1886 to photograph the Apache operated a gallery in Bisbee briefly in 1897. Ironically after photographing the end of the wild Apache years before, Miller was killed by the Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico 2 years later.

The 1880s saw a tremendous development boom that followed the arrival of the railroad across Arizona. Whether maturing of the business in major towns such as Yuma and Tucson, creation of new towns along the route, like Flagstaff, or the ability to develop rich but previously remote mines, the railroad spurred the development of Arizona.

As California became more civilized, Arizona retained its position in the heart of the "Old West". Even so, the state continued to mature. As the number of settlers increased, so did the businesses that served them. As farming and tourism began to join mining as primary resources to fuel the growth and development of the territory. Public schools had been established in the 1870s and a Normal School and University followed in 1885.

Late 1880's and into the 1890's photography began to mature as a business and expand its influence as advances in camera and film design made amateur photography accessible to the general public.

The end of the 1880s saw the development of growing communities and social development based increasingly on agriculture, finance and service industries joined ranching and mining as the economic foundations for the territory. Studios were established in emerging towns such as Casa Grande (Everett), Clifton (Lucas), Hackberry (Phillips), Hayden (Barnett), Holbrook (Rose), Mesa (Barnett), Willcox (Bright), and Winslow (Rose).

Roll Film and the Emergence of Amateur Photographers

The development of roll film further simplifying the process of photography, making handheld"snapshot" photography possible and creating a major amateur market for the first time. The Eastman Kodak box camera which became available in 1889 and other inexpensive, lightweight, portable cameras further fueled the boom in amateur photography. The affordable cameras and film permitting instantaneous daylight exposures permitted travelers to make photographs to help them describe to their friends and acquaintances the sights that they saw and describe the native Americans and strange plants that they saw in Arizona.

Well to do locals could document the events of their daily life, and build family albums that included more than just formal studio portrait. By freeing photographers from the need to carry and change plate holders for each image, the roll film cameras permitted images to be made in relatively rapid sequences, changing forever the way that events like parades, fires, and ceremonies were documented and reproduced.

Printed reproduction of photographs continued to evolve from illustrations and engravings loosely based on photographs, to recognizable photographic representations. Popular press provided a significant market for photographs, both for reproduction, and as a source of advertising their services.

Promotion of Arizona as a land of opportunity, abundant rich farmland waiting for irrigation water to flourish. The canal system of the Hohokam provided proof of the fertility of the Salt River Valley in central Arizona. The mild winters offered the possibility of additional growing seasons and productivity year round. Images of the growing towns, and healthy citrus orchards joined the Native American, Cowboy, and mining images.

The 1890s also saw the emergence of Arizona and its dry warm climate as a potential cure for ailments from tuberculosis and consumption to rheumatism. Claims were even made that the heat sterilized the air. The health benefits of the Arizona climate were touted worldwide, and sanatoriums and retreats became new business opportunities. Some, like Castle Hot Springs were popular photographic subjects which continued to receive international attention well into the 20th century.

As the state developed, so did the photographic business. Partnerships grew as businesses became established and competition increased. Photographic imprints mark collaborations such as: Hildreth and Burge, Rothrock and Catton, Buehman and Hartwell, and Mitchell & Baer joining independent operators.
The development of roll film further simplified the process of photography, making handheld"snapshot" photography possible and creating a major amateur market for the first time. The Eastman Kodak box camera which became available in 1889 and other inexpensive, lightweight, portable cameras further fueled the boom in amateur photography. The affordable cameras and film permitting instantaneous daylight exposures permitted travelers to make photographs to help them describe to their friends and acquaintances the sights that they saw and describe the native Americans and strange plants that they saw in Arizona.

As photography evolved (or in the eyes of many, regressed) from an art to a business the industry different skills were required. The itinerant's ability to survive and physical strength required to carry the heavy equipment into the remote areas of the territory gave way to the interpersonal skills, marketing, and management skills needed to run a studio emphasizing portrait and commercial work. The investment required grew from the camera and darkroom equipment of the itinerant to a studio building, props, reception and display area and the other accouterments of a retail business.

Excitement and adventure were replaced by the repetitive work of portraiture, retouching and framing. Even photofinishing for the amateur market, which had provided some revenue for many studios, was undercut. Other businesses such as drug and stationary stores cut in to the studios market, offering cameras, film, processing and printing in competition with the community photographers.

The freewheeling nature of the itinerant gave way to concerns of market share and maintaining a client base as studio "territories" became as important as the quality of the images that were produced. Arizona continued to draw itinerant and talented amateur photographers, but the established studios provided a stable framework for making and marketing photographs of Arizona.

Phoenix, which had developed as irrigation supported raising hay and grain became the capital of the territory in 1889. By 1894, Phoenix boasted electric streetcars, streetlights, waterworks, a telephone system, sewage system, and a steam powered fire department. Photographers throughout the territory either moved to the growing new capital, or opened branch galleries there. Directories and advertisements for photographic services included the Elite gallery, Sunbeam Studio and the New York Gallery and New York Photo Studio whose names played on the urban aspirations of the growing capital city.

A. F. Messinger, and initially his partner William Altenburgh operated a gallery at 243 W. Madison street in Phoenix beginning about 1897. Their card mounted photographs carried an elaborate logo, an image of the two photographers with tripod mounted cameras posed proudly in front of their studio. Messinger, apparently independent of Altenburgh, was active until 1901 producing over 400 images predominantly of Phoenix, but including Castle Hot Springs, Flagstaff, Tucson and Jerome. Images of Phoenix include a series of the Phoenix Indian school, including classroom interiors, portraits and architectural views. Other Phoenix views included a series of images of the Phoenix winter Carnival of 1899 and the parade floats, as well as portraits, ethnographic views, and documentation of commercial growth in the capital of the Territory.

The Photographic Industry of the 1900s

Boomtowns continued to follow the path of mineral development. Eventually, the saloons and "entertainment" establishments gave way to more legitimate businesses. Studios were established in the emerging communities such as Mesa, Casa Grande, and Ft. Huachucha. Most developing mining communities in Arizona had their own studios. Jerome was the home of M. F. Brennen producing portraits and images of the United Verde mine and works in the Verde Valley in the center of the state. In the South East, Morenci had Arthur Davidson producing stereographs, and O. A. Risdon documented Clifton and Metcalf.

Regulation of photography became an issue as amateur photography continued to reach broader markets and competition between photographers for the shrinking "professional" marketplace became fierce. As photographers vied for the opportunity to build a photographic business in the developing towns, competition by the scores of itinerants became an issue. Several established photographers began to lobby for some forms of control to protect their businesses. Photographic licenses arrived in Arizona ca 1895 requiring a fee of $10 for a license in Phoenix and Tucson but had little impact on limiting the number of itinerant and amateur photographers who were competing with the established studios.

Bisbee supplanted Tombstone as the cultural center of Arizona in the 1890s. Like its predecessor, Bisbee gave San Francisco a significant challenge for the largest and most cultured city in the West. Opera houses and fine restaurants and hotels supplemented Brewery Gulch and the more risqué businesses. In 189**** Bisbee had demonstrated its wealth by sending a ***** pound copper nugget from the Copper Queen Mine to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Copper was increasingly in demand to supply electricity, and Bisbee was one of the richest copper producers in the world. At some point during its heyday, most of the photographers in the Territory operated at least a branch gallery in Bisbee.

Bisbee was also an Arizona operating base for many photographers from other states. Wilfred Humphries rode the railroad between his studios in Bisbee and EL Paso, producing photographs and postcards of Cochise County. Olaf P. Larson, of Moscow, Idaho operated out of Bisbee traveling throughout the state producing stereoscopic photographs of the mines in Jerome, and events in Nogales and Phoenix.

The Indian ceremonials became the focus of Native American documentation in the 1890's. The Hopi drew photographers such as A. C. Vroman of California, Charles Lummis, Ben Wittick of New Mexico, and contract photographers for publishers including Continent, Detroit Publishing Co., Underwood and Keystone as well as hundreds of amateur photographers.

After the turn of the century, E. S. Curtis, Joseph Mora, Kate Coury and many others continued to build on the work of their predecessors in documenting the Hopi ceremonies and making more romantic images of the Navajo and Apache and other Arizona tribes. The images, albums and stereographs that resulted provide a significant cultural record of a time before the sheer numbers of photographers and the resulting intrusion led to the banning of cameras in the mid-teens.

As the West was tamed, renegade Indians were replaced by images of cowboys and ranching. Artists of renown including Charles Russell and Frederick Remington visited Arizona creating images of the rapidly passing Wild West. Zane Gray and scores of popular authors wove stories of the exciting life in Arizona.

The Grand Canyon, which had captivated the world through the survey images of the 1870s became a major tourist draw. Mining in the Canyon gave way to tourism as the primary economic base. Initially tourists came by stagecoach from Flagstaff and Williams to stay in tents on the South rim of the canyon above Bright Angel Creek. The spectacular scenery continued to entice photographers, many making stereographs offered individually or in sets by publishers like Continent, White, Underwood, and Keystone.

The construction of the El Tovar Lodge in 1904 and of a rail link to the South rim of the canyon simplified access, increased the capacity and created the posh accommodations which firmly established the Grand Canyon as one of the 7 wonders of the World. Ellsworth and Emery Kolb established a gallery on the rim and spent decades photographing the Canyon. Visitors were photographed en route into the canyon from their studio which extended across the trail. The Kolbs traveled the Colorado and throughout the Canyon for the rest of their lives making still and motion pictures.

The Post Card Era

Though postal cards had been authorized by the U. S. Post office in 1873, they were technically limited to written communication and holiday greetings. The Columbian Exposition in 1893 saw thousands of printed postal card images of the fair increase interest in using and collecting the cards. In 1898, the Post office equalized the cost of sending government issues and privately printed cards labeled "Private Mailing Cards" at one cent each if the phrase "Authorized by Act of Congress, May 19, 1898" was printed on the card.

1901 saw the beginning of the boom in collecting and using the penny cards when the Post Office allowed the cumbersome printed label to be replaced with the simple term, "Post Card". High quality printed cards, initially from Germany and later from domestic presses, flooded the market and began a major rise in the popularity of using and collecting post cards.

The availability of roll film, inexpensive 3 1/2" X 5 1/2" cameras offered by Kodak and other manufacturers beginning about 1902, inexpensive photographic processing, and double weight post card printing paper all led to the popularity of the photographic post card. The completion of the Rural Free Delivery system providing virtually universal daily mail delivery was the final component in setting the stage for the post card explosion in the first decade of the 20th century. It was estimated that about 680 million postcards were sent in 1908, increasing to almost 1 billion cards by 1913.

Photomechanical reproduction created significant new opportunities, dramatically increasing the market for images. Larger newspapers were able to reproduce photographs of events rather than relying on artist's illustrations. Some newspapers employed contract photographers, and all acquired images from what ever source possible, studio photographers, itinerants, and amateurs. Commercial brochures for investors, land sales, and encouraging migration to the territory formed another significant new market for photographs. In addition to the revenue from the original sale to the paper or printer, there was a market for reproductions of photographs of the personalities and events that were depicted as postcards for sale to the public.

Motion picture photography, pioneered by the multiple camera "animal locomotion" images made by Edweard Muybridge, developed in the late 1880's. By the mid 1890's Edison's Kinescope competed with a number of other models for the growing motion picture market.

Motion picture cameras documented the Snake Dance at Walpi as early as 1899 when Oscar Depue visited the Hopi pueblo. Depue presented one of the first motion picture shows at a trading post in Canyon Diablo during a second trip to the area in 1900. The Edison Company sent an unidentified camera operator to photograph the ceremonies in 1901.

Bisbee was also host to early presentations of the Lumiere brothers motion picture process and Warren had an "aerodrome", a precursor of the drive-in, built for presentation of outdoor motion pictures by about 1908. Grand motion picture palaces were built in Phoenix, Prescott, Tucson, and most established towns by the mid 'teens.

Photographic "Boosterism"

Images of the grand new buildings, whether in Phoenix or new communities developing throughout the territory, became a mainstay of many photographers. Images of the parades and community events were purchased and sent to friends and relatives across the nation to show how civilized towns like Courtland, Miami, Oatman, Paradise and Warren had become.

Development was an important activity, whether selling Arizona as an escape from foul weather, for its healthy climate, or as a potential site for productive farms and real estate wealth. Building on the tradition of the promotional books of the 1860's and 70's photographers produced images for the flyers, brochures, books and postcards to make and support the claims. The Territorial Commissioner for Immigration attempted to change early misconceptions about the climate, and draw "good people" to Arizona. In addition to tourism and domestic potential, sanatoriums for tuberculosis and the benefits of Castle and Indian Hot Springs and desert resorts were touted in photographs and print.

Another commercial enterprise which had an impact on early development of the Territory had begun in 1888 when three young ostrich were brought to Salt River Valley from California. By 1913 Phoenix boasted flocks including over 6,000 birds ostrich farms producing ostrich feathers for the fashion industry. From the beginning, the ostrich farms were popular photographic subjects, appearing in many amateur albums from the period.

As the territory grew, images showing the impact of man's taming the environment joined those of the developing communities. The hay and grain fields were being joined by neat rows of citrus and experimental fields of cotton. Interest in large scale irrigation piqued after 1900 and resulted in the design and construction of the first hydroelectric dam in the nation, Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River North of Phoenix. Smaller projects such as the Laguna Dam near Yuma, and Granite Reef Dam near Mesa showed the promise of harnessing Arizona rivers for irrigation and development.

Construction of the Dam was a major event, and became the focus of local photographers and itinerants, and amateurs ranging from engineers and project administrators to local shutterbugs. In addition, each step of the complex construction project was captured by official contract photographers,

From 1906 to 1911, contract photographer Walter Lubkin painstakingly documented the construction of the Roosevelt Dam, the first hydroelectric dam in the country and one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken. Lubkin produced an official set of albums documenting the construction, and The Lubkin Company produced photographs and postcards for the popular marketplace.

The construction boom town at Roosevelt was large enough to support its own photographic studio. The Arizona Souvenir Picture Company, produced photographic postcards of the dam construction, town life, and the fauna and flora of the region for local and national markets. The dedication of the dam on March 18, 1911 drew dignitaries including President Teddy Roosevelt and drew hundreds of photographers to capture the event on film.

The albums, photographs, postcards, and snapshots provide detailed records of the construction projects, lives of the workmen, associated social and celebratory events, and images of the impact on the communities - the picnics and sight seeing trips as well as the subsequent development of the towns and agriculture.

The relative difficulty of travel across the state fostered efforts to develop powered transportation to supplement the railroad. Lucius Copeland of Phoenix created one of the first motorcycles when he built a steam engine for his high wheeled bicycle in 1883. Soon a 3 wheeled version was produced, and Copeland demonstrated his steam powered vehicles locally, and in San Francisco. In 1899, Copeland was noted as being the second owner of a four-wheeled "automobile" in Phoenix. The wagon roads and trails that crossed the state did little for auto travel and development of modern roads was slow. Despite the lack of good roads, automobiles were status symbols, owned by the wealthy in towns across Arizona. Images of cars traveling, camping, or delivering mail to the general store or post office were sold by the hundreds.

Aviation had become a passion as the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss biplanes competed for new records and control of the air. The general public had not seen airplanes fly until the Hudson-Fulton celebration in October, 1909 when over 1 million watched Wilbur Wright fly around the Statue of Liberty. The flat land and mild climate made Arizona a natural location for aviation.

The 1909 Territorial Fair had a flurry of aerial activity. Mr. O'Dell offered the wealthy and adventurous balloon trips above the fairgrounds, and provided a new forum for local advertising by permitting local businesses to advertise on plaques mounted to the basket. Amateur and professional postcard photographers found the balloon a popular subject. In addition, a locally built glider was displayed in the crafts section of the fair. On the last day, the craft was towed by a car and flew to a height of 4 feet above the racetrack. Surprisingly, few people were present, and the event, the first "aeroplane" flight in Arizona, received only a brief note in the paper the following day.

The following year local businesses invited major aviators from throughout the world to the Phoenix Aero Meet, scheduled for early February. Los Angeles beat Phoenix to the punch having a meet in January, 1910. Crashes and litigation between the Wrights and Curtiss limited the attendance, but interest in the meet absorbed the Territory. Schools were closed and the papers, and local photographers, followed every move of the two aviators and Curtiss biplanes that arrived for the Meet.

Images of the plane and their competition with each other, against a local Buick race car, the " White Streak", and a Curtiss motorcycle were reproduced in papers , sent on the wire services, and sold to the public. In addition to George Sadler, the self proclaimed official photographer for the event, photographs and postcards were produced and sold by"Bob" Trumbull, Harrigan and Christie and probably most other amateur and professional photographers attending the Aero Meet.

Difficulty in traveling in Arizona was creatively used as a promotional tool. In 1910, the American Automobile Association sponsored A. L. Westgard in a cross country trip to promote a cross country highway. Westgard followed the old Northern wagon route across Arizona which became Route 66. The Los Angeles to Phoenix auto race, held in conjunction with the 1911 Territorial Fair drew national attention, Coincidentally , the race followed the same as a proposed southern route for a cross country national highway. In 1913, Fisk Tires used Arizona as a backdrop for photographs of their St. Paul to Los Angeles tour to demonstrate the dependability of their pneumatic tires. Soon after, Route 66 crossed the State and its campgrounds and auto courts joined the scenery as subjects of postcards, photographs, and brochures.

Historical photographs continued to produce significant revenue to photographers in Arizona and throughout the nation. The explosive market for images fueled by the popularity of the postcard saw thousands of images of Arizona's past copied and marketed as photographic postcards.

About the time Arizona became a state, postcard publishers began to replace individual studios as a primary source of picture postcards. The large producers had been players for years and the high quality printed cards that they produced began to replace the individual photographic cards. Many photographers purchased and sold printed cards from their studios, but the publishers also sold to the stationary, drug, and curio stores which competed in the postcard marketplace.

Though many tribes objected to photography from their first exposure to the media, limits to photography did not appear until well into the 20th century. In 1899, photographer Ben Wittick commented about the number of photographers at the Walpi Snake Dance "There were visitors from San Francisco, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, etc., and anybody with a Kodak!"

One of the first and firmest prohibitions began as an attempt to control attendance at the Snake Dance Ceremony at Walpi. An initial plan to limit and control general attendance was ordered in 1913 by the Superintendent of Indian Affairs after tales of still and motion picture photography getting out of hand reached Washington.

In a classic example of poor timing, Victor Miller, a cinematographer for Pathe's Weekly, was arrested shortly thereafter, following a night long chase across the reservation in an attempt to smuggle his film off of the reservation without signing an agreement promising only noncommercial use. In addition a party of political entities including Governor Hunt and President Roosevelt and several photographers, were added last minute to the limited list of attendees, causing an additional intrusion on the ceremonial.

The result of the fiasco of 1913 was an order that "no photographs, still, animated, or out of focus, should be permitted thereafter. Few images appear after 1917, and the ban was virtually total by 1920.

The Mexican War

American interest in images of carnage and war that drove the popularity of images of the Civil War in the 1860s and 70s, Native Americans and the fearsome Apache in the 1870s and 80s and photographs of hangings and disasters found a new focus in the Mexican Revolution. Coinciding with the peak in popularity of the photographic postcard, the Mexican Revolution from 1910 - 1916 was the subject of millions of photographic postcards and focus of collections world wide. Photographers like Calvin Osbon and Walter Horne rose to fame and fortune making and selling postcards of the Revolution, particularly in 1914 when American troops invaded and occupied Vera Cruz. Local photographers along the border and enterprising professional and amateur photographers competed to capture images of life along the border for the growing market.

The border between Arizona and Mexico saw considerable action during the Mexican Revolution. Agua Prieta, Naco, and Douglas saw considerable action after Pancho Villa raided Columbus New Mexico in 1916. Initially 5,000 troops from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas were called to services. By September, nearly 200,000 army and National Guardsmen were on active duty along the U. S. border with Mexico. Soldiers sent millions of cards to their friends and families back home, creating a huge market for portraits and images of the sites and scenes of the conflict. During its peak in 1916, one photographer indicated that he was producing almost 5.000 cards a day.

Typical subjects included images of the "Mexican Bandits", action scenes of the conflict,executions, burned and bloated bodies reminiscent of the images of the Civil War battlefields, and scenes of the military camps. This was a time of transition for the military and the post card images capture both the cavalry and horse-powered armaments, supply wagons and gasoline powered trucks, armored vehicles and motorcycles.

The border insurgence was the first war where airplanes played a part. Beginning with the seaplanes used in Vera Cruz, airplanes captured the interest of photographers following the troops. Aerial images of the camps and troops, the carnage caused by the first aerial bombing, and portraits of the first military aviators were among the postcard images made.

The U. S. was "dry" and the gambling clubs and bars just over the border were popular sites. Images of the casinos, hostesses, and other "forbidden" pleasures showed the worldly nature of the soldiers and the exciting life of the young troops along the border.

Documenting Labor

Labor-management disputes had been a part of the Arizona scene for decades. Mining unions, dominated by the International Workers of the World or "Wobblies" attempted periodic negotiations for higher wages and improved working conditions which led to strikes. Postcards captured images of labor unrest, from the Copper strikes of U. S. miners in Cananea, Mexico in 1906 to the IWW Labor strikes in Globe and Jerome, and the Bisbee deportations in 1916. George Dix, documented the deportation at Bisbee beginning with the Sheriff Wheeler's creation of a posse of non-union sympathizers identified by arm bands. Dix's images document the roundup of over 1,250 union members at gunpoint and their forced march first to the baseball stadium, then to cattle cars as the union members were run out of town - sent by rail to Columbus New Mexico.

Other unrest occurred in Globe, with the National Guard called out to protect the mine from striking workers. A currently unidentified photographer created a compelling series of images of the strikers march through town, the conflict with the troops, and the removal of the wounded by truck. Jerome and other mining communities also saw strikes and labor unrest during this period. Though photographs of the deportation and union conflicts were produced, they apparently were not generally distributed and are relatively uncommon today.

The End of the Golden Era

After WWI the country was ready for change. The War to end all Wars had just been won. Development of the industries which grew during the war became a focus of attention. Communication technologies and mass media continued to develop and photography as a business, and social document changed.

As the second decade of the century ended, the Wild West became anachronistic, with romantic portrayals in pulp and movies replacing the "real" images of bygone days. Dude ranches became popular and Arizona saw travel and tourism become major economic forces in the state. Captions on stereographs of cowboys that had been marketed since the 1890's by publishers like Keystone changed from initially describing the brave tamers of the west, to description of the busy, alert mounted, "mounted herdsmen whose duty it is to keep cattle together" to asking young viewers "have you ever played cowboy" describing the old time cowboy as a thing of the past replaced by efficient grain feedlots. The West had definitely changed.

The market for postcards and stereographs continued to shrink as motion picture shows and higher quality photomechanical reproduction reached new mass markets. Movie theaters brought images of national and world events, and photomechanical reproductions in magazines and newspapers provided tangible records for people to share with family and friends. Even small local papers began to add photographic illustrations and scrap books began to edge out postcards and photographs as records of community events.

The telephone become relatively commonplace and the immediacy of a phone call supplanted the old picture postcard for everyday communication. Businesses in outlying areas, like the Kolb gallery at the Grand canyon, no longer had to rely on postcards to order groceries and supplies from store in town. A simple phone call would do. Postcards became less important as communication tools and social documents, remaining popular as tourist mementos

The photographic studio finally pushed the itinerant almost out of existence as portraiture became a mainstay. The newspaper stringer became one of the last incarnations of the survey and itinerant photographers that helped expose and develop the state. Roads were built, initially around the towns, and eventually between them, and the automobile became available to the middle class.

Arizona is indebted to the brave photographers who captured images of the environment, personalities, and events that shaped the development of the Territory. Their legacy was critical to the investment, promotion, and growth of the state. Though the number of photographers and volume of images produced is small compared with many other western states, they form a significant portrait of the exciting evolution from the barren home of the Navajo and Apache blocking travel route to the goldfields of California, to the next bonanza of gold, silver, and copper, to the international economic force Arizona has become today.

The fascination with the history of photography that began in the 1970's has begun to mature. Photographs are studied and analyzed for the information that they contain, not simply as illustrations for the printed word. Slowly a body of knowledge is forming about the men and women who produced these historic documents. Private and public collections are beginning to consolidate the images so they can be studied and interpreted. Study by time period, format, and process begin to add depth to the analysis of images, and of the events and subjects that they depict. Analysis of mount information, such as studio name and location has begun to refine dating of photographs and permit at least some assistance in verifying (and questioning) the pencil notations and attributions that have been added to the mounts of many images over time. Hopefully this body of knowledge will continue to grow.

I hope that you enjoyed this overview of photography in territorial Arizona. I continue to research pre-1920 Arizona photographs and appreciate any information that you are willing to share. I tend to research by format and am particularly interested in flat mount stereographs and exceptional real photographic postcards Please let me know if you have anything that you feel would be of interest to me whether in your collection, during your research or available for sale.

Jeremy Rowe
jrowe@vintagephoto.com