Old Crow, identified by the printed label at the bottom of the mount, is depicted on horseback in this albumen cabinet card by D. F. Barry of Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Barry was among the foremost photographers of Plains Indian subjects in the late nineteenth century, producing an extensive series of portraits at and around the Standing Rock and Fort Yates area during the 1870s and 1880s.
The subject wears a dark dress with a plaid blanket or skirt gathered across the lap, a large feathered hat, and a circular breastplate or medallion at the chest. The hair is worn in long braids, and the figure holds the horse's reins with both hands while seated squarely in the saddle. A tent or structure is faintly visible in the background behind the horse's hindquarters.
Barry's Plains Indian portraits are among the most collected and reproduced documentary photographs of the era, and this example, made while Dakota Territory was still a pre-statehood jurisdiction, carries both historical and ethnographic weight. The reverse bears the printed imprint "D. F. Barry, Photographer, Bismarck, D.T." on a floral-patterned cream mount. The recto label reads "OLD CROW."
From the collection of James Lee Soffer
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