National Museum of the American Indian

Oswald Schraubstadter collection of Fort Sill photographs

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAI.AC.183
Creators:
Schraubstadter, Oswald
Soule, William S. (William Stinson), 1836-1908
Bliss, William P.
Dates:
1869-1875
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
26 Photographic prints
0.06 Linear feet
Repository:
This collection consists of twenty-six photographic prints depicting individuals from a number of Southern Plains Indian communities in the region of Fort Sill and Camp Supply, Oklahoma Territory, and dating to the 1860s and 1870s.

Content Description

Content Description
The Oswald Schraubstadter collection of Fort Sill photographs consists of twenty-six photographic prints dating to the 1860s and 1870s. The bulk of the photographs are studio portraits and depict a number of Southern Plains Indian community members and leaders in the region of Fort Sill and Camp Supply, Oklahoma Territory. These photographs represent the work of various late twentieth-century photographers of the American West including William Stinson Soule (Will Soule), William P. Bliss (W.P. Bliss), and others so far unidentified. The photographs were collected by Oswald Schraubstadter, who donated them to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in 1928.

Arrangement

Arrangement
This collection is arranged into folders by cultural group.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Oswald Schraubstadter was born in 1868 in St. Louis, Missouri. Along with his father and brothers, Oswald worked in the type foundry business. With his brothers he established the Inland Type Foundry in St. Louis in 1894, and later worked for the American Type Founders company in New York until his retirement in 1932. Oswald Schraubstadter died in 1955 in New York at the age of 86.
Photographers William Stinson Soule (Will Soule) and William P. Bliss (W.P. Bliss) were contemporaries who briefly lived and worked in the region of Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, at approximately the same time in the 1870s. Both men photographed the U.S. Army personnel and Southern Plains Indian communities living there, with Soule arriving in the area in the late 1860s and departing in 1874. Bliss arrived in either 1874 or 1875 and documented many of the same individuals and geographic features as Soule. At least some of Soule's original photography was later sold under Bliss's photographic imprint. Due to this, there continues to be debate over the correct attribution of the works of these two men in the Fort Sill region in the 1860s and 1870s.

Administration

Author
Nathan Sowry
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated by Oswald Schraubstadter in 1928.
Processing Information
Processed by Nathan Sowry, Reference Archivist, in 2021.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Conditions Governing Access
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Oswald Schraubstadter collection of Fort Sill photographs, NMAI.AC.183; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Plains Apache (Kiowa Apache) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Apache Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kiowa Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Inunaina (Arapaho) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Niuam (Comanche) Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wichita Cultural Context Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Museum of the American Indian
4220 Silver Hill Rd
Suitland, Maryland 20746-2863
nmaiarchives@si.edu