Jicarilla Apache Brave and Squaw, lately wedded. Abiquiu Agency, New Mexico
Medium
Albumen print, stereo
Dimensions
Each image: 9.2 × 7.4 cm (3 5/8 × 2 15/16 in.); Card: 10 × 17.7 cm (3 15/16 × 7 in.)
Classification
stereograph (albumen)
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
210792
Art Historical Context
Timothy O’Sullivan’s 187 stereograph captures a newly married Jicarilla Apache couple at the Abiquiu Agency in New Mexico. Working during the era of U.S. government surveys of the West, O’Sullivan documented both dramatic landscapes and the daily lives of Native peoples as federal policies reshaped their homelands. The formal pose and direct gaze suggest a deliberate effort to present the sitters with dignity within the conventions of nineteenth-century portraiture. The work is an albumen-print stereograph, a format that thrilled Victorian viewers when seen through a stereoscope. Two nearly i...
About the Artist
Timothy O'Sullivan · 1840–1882
Timothy H. O'Sullivan (c. 1840–1882) emerged as one of America's pioneering photographers during a transformative era. His early life remains sparsely documented, with records suggesting he was born either in New York City or Ireland before immigrating young, possibly growing up on Staten Island. As a teenager, he apprenticed under Mathew Brady at his Fulton Street gallery in New York, mastering w...