Richard Throssel, Bull Goes Hunting. The old Historian. (Crow)
Richard Throssel
1882-1933
Cree/Scottish/adopted Crow
Alternative Name
Richard Albert Throssel
Date
1909 (original)
Medium Specific
Digital reprint
Classification
Photograph
Dimensions
11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm. ), Framed: 20 x 17 1/2 in. (50.8 x 44.5 cm.)
Accession Number
2009.25.10.116
Credit
Courtesy of the Braun Research Library, Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles.
Biography
"Richard Albert Throssel was born in Marengo, Washington of Cree Indian, French Canadian and Scottish descent. In 1902, at the age of 20, he moved to the Crow Reservation in Montana where he became interested in photography and purchased a camera with the intention of creating a photographic documentary of the Crow Nation. He was able to obtain a clerk’s position with the Indian Service on the Crow Reservation and in 1909 he was appointed as the Services “photographer at large.” In this position he was instructed to depict daily life on the Crow Reservation and demonstrate the “successful acculturation of Crow Indians”. A year later, his work became the center of a national health campaign by creating educational slides for the prevention of tuberculosis and trachoma.
One of his earliest mentors was the artist Joseph Henry Sharp, who was living on the Reservation at the time and gave Throssel lessons in painting and design that complimented the correspondence courses in photography he was undertaking. Throssel acknowledged the influence and guidance of Edward S. Curtis who first visited the reservation in 1905 and again in 1907 resulting in Throssel’s contribution of a rare photograph of a Northern Cheyenne ceremony that was included in Curtis’s epic The North American Indian. Throssel also supplied 42 images to Joseph Dixon as part of the Wanamaker Expedition which included the Crow Reservation.
Throssel was adopted by the tribe in 1905 and given the name Esh Quon Dupahs, or “Kills Inside the Camp”. He remained on the Reservation until 1911 when he moved to Billings, Montana to begin his own studio, Throssel Photocraft Company. He relied on his vast collection of over 1,000 images to launch the studio, creating a volume entitled “Western Classics” which included formal and informal portraits of Crow people, tipi scenes, Crow ceremonial images, daily life, and public events."
One of his earliest mentors was the artist Joseph Henry Sharp, who was living on the Reservation at the time and gave Throssel lessons in painting and design that complimented the correspondence courses in photography he was undertaking. Throssel acknowledged the influence and guidance of Edward S. Curtis who first visited the reservation in 1905 and again in 1907 resulting in Throssel’s contribution of a rare photograph of a Northern Cheyenne ceremony that was included in Curtis’s epic The North American Indian. Throssel also supplied 42 images to Joseph Dixon as part of the Wanamaker Expedition which included the Crow Reservation.
Throssel was adopted by the tribe in 1905 and given the name Esh Quon Dupahs, or “Kills Inside the Camp”. He remained on the Reservation until 1911 when he moved to Billings, Montana to begin his own studio, Throssel Photocraft Company. He relied on his vast collection of over 1,000 images to launch the studio, creating a volume entitled “Western Classics” which included formal and informal portraits of Crow people, tipi scenes, Crow ceremonial images, daily life, and public events."
Date of Bio