The lot features two original circa 1913 Custer Battlefield Battle of the Little Bighorn Rodman Wanamaker Photogravures. Rodman Wanamaker (1863-1928) was an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune. In addition to operating stores in Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris, he was a patron of the arts, education, golf, athletics, a Native American scholarship, and of early aviation. Rodman Wanamaker hired former Baptist preacher and lecturer Joseph Kossuth Dixon as his official photographer and sponsored three expeditions to Native American reservations (1908-1913). The main goal of these expeditions was to document the way of life of Native Americans, whom he saw as a "vanishing race," and to make "first-class citizens" of the Indians as a means of saving them from extinction. In additiona to still photography, films were also made during these expeditions including a motion picture film about Hiawatha made on the first expedition (1908), and a reenactment of the Battle of the Little Big Horn made on the second expedition (1909). The third expedition, the "Expedition of Citizenship" (1913), focused on carrying an American flag to tribes across the country and inviting them to sign a declaration of allegiance to the United States. Wanamaker, was a political supporter for Native American citizenship rights in the United States, coordinated and sponsored these trips. Wanamaker was particularly anxious that the "vanishing race's" life and culture would be lost to modernity and relegated to reservations. Wanamaker supported trips to document Indian life and culture through photography, film, and sound recordings in order to advance his cause and raise awareness of the condition of the American Indian. The photographs were made by Dixon and largely depict northern Plains tribes, including Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, and Dakota. The photogravures are titled, "Chief Plenty Coups" and "Custer Scouts". Plenty Coups was the principal chief of the Crow tribe and a visionary leader. He allied the Crow with the whites when the war for the West was being fought because the Sioux and Cheyenne (who opposed white settlement of the area) were the traditional enemies of the Crow. Plenty Coups had also experienced a vision when he was very young that non-Native American people would ultimately take control of his homeland (Montana), so he always felt that cooperation would benefit his people much more than opposition. He very much wanted the Crow to survive as a people and their customs and spiritual beliefs to carry on. His efforts on their behalf ensured that this happened, and he led his people peacefully into the 20th century. Crow Scouts worked with the United States Army in several conflicts, the first in 1876 during the Great Sioux War. Chief Plenty Coups is featured outside in a forested area, wearing beaded moccasins, a fringed leather poncho with attached rabbit hides, buckskin pants and a warbonnet while holding a decorated coup stick. The Custer Scouts are featured, three on horseback and one standing with his horse behind him, amongst the grave stones of the Battle of the Little Bighorn battlefield. All are dressed in buckskins and their scout coats. The two photogravures are in very good preserved condition, age tanning noted. Professionally mounted in matted gold gilt wood frames, frames have slight scuffing observed. Frames measure 14.25"W x 18"L x 1.25"D. Combined weight is 4lb, 10oz.