Featured in this lot is this albumen photograph of "Low Dog" from American photographer David F. Barry born in 1854 and died in 1934; from the ex-collection of the C.M. Russell Museum and John Kleinschmidt. The photograph features a wonderfully and professionally crafted albumen photograph that is blind stamped in the bottom right hand corner as follows: Copyrighted by D.F. Barry and Low Dog. The photograph comes with a museum or collectors tag that reads as follows: 1396-87 O'Dell. The photograph shows a portrait of Low Dog holding a tomahawk. The photograph comes complete with a hand written letter from D.F. Barry to John Kleinschmidt that specifically references this photograph as being accused of misrepresenting Low Dog as Bloody Knife along with conveying his disdain for a man named McBride as a liar for claiming to have spent a half century with the Standing Rock Agency. The condition of this of this D.F. Barry albumen photograph is good with no obvious signs of damage to the photograph and some slight wear to the frame but otherwise shows a well preserved condition. The measurements of this framed photograph is 6 7/8" x 5" and the visible photograph measures 6 1/8" x 4 1/4". The collective weight of this framed photograph is 4oz.
David Francis Barry (1854-1934) was one of the most noted photographers of the American Indian and U.S. Army participants in the Sioux War of 1876 and is attributed with some of the most recognizable surviving images from this period in the history of the American West. Barry first came to the west in the 1870’s to apprentice under photographer O.S. Goff, who worked as the photographer at Fort Abraham Lincoln. It was from this post the Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led his Seventh U.S. Cavalry division in May 1876 to the battle of the Little Bighorn in southwestern Montana. This is considered one of the largest collection of Barry photographs from one historic Montana family offered for public sale.