Blue Horse, identified on the mount as "Chief of the Shoshoner," is the subject of this cabinet card portrait made by Elliott and Fry at their Baker Street studio in London, almost certainly during Buffalo Bill's Wild West tour of 1887, when the show made its celebrated debut in England. The image carries a copyright notice on the recto and was produced by one of Victorian London's most prominent portrait firms, which held a royal warrant. Blue Horse faces the camera with a direct, steady expression, his long dark hair worn loose with two tall feathers rising above his head.

He wears a fully assembled bone hair pipe breastplate covering the chest in dense horizontal rows, a multi-strand bead necklace, and a substantial choker of what appear to be bone or shell tubes at the collar. A fringed hide garment is visible at the shoulder, and the overall presentation is formal and intentional.

Elliott and Fry photographed numerous members of the 1887 Wild West contingent during the London engagement, producing a series of studio portraits that circulated widely as cabinet cards. Blue Horse was among the Shoshone performers who traveled with the show to England that season.

Recto imprint reads: "Blue Horse, 'Chief of the Shoshoner.' Elliott & Fry, Buffalo Bill's Wild West, Copyright, 55, Baker Str, London.W." Reverse bears the full studio imprint of Elliott and Fry, Photographers, 55 & 56, Baker Street, London.W., with a royal coat of arms and the mount printer's mark of W. Herrmann & Co., Berlin.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer