What a guy !

Little "Pie-Eyed" what was Exactly in those Peace Pipes?

You'd look that way too if you spent years in an Alabama Mental Institute.

Hell..I'd look that way if I spent more than a coupla days in Alabama...period.

I have a cepiatone (sp?) print from the original plates taken in 1885 of him. The same is hanging in the Smithsonian.

My f.i.l. owns the Coffrin Old West Gallery just outside of Bozeman. He also owns many (hundreds) of the original photographic plates from L.A. Huffman. (1854-1931). Huffman was an old west photographer that came out to the Montana territory from Iowa in about 1879. He did most of his photographic work at Fort Keogh and around the Mile City area. Fort Keogh was established just after the Custer Battle and was the headquarters from which the remaining campaigns against the Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne and Cheif Joseph's Nez Perce tribe was organized.

Next to Sitting Bull, I have (in the same frame) a picture taken in Nov. 1879 of Sioux Chief Spotted Eagle's village in the Tongue River Valley of what was then the Montana Territory.

Looking at these actual photos of the period is facinating to me. Huffman really did a great job of capturing the true flavor of that era.

I'd like to see those sometime Ray!

#5, Knock,

that's 'sepia' and I believe it means that the colors (blacks and whites) were evened out through the judicial use of grey/dark grey paints/washes on the final prints.

Nonetheless, it sounds like your FIL has some priceless (underline that) stuff.

I LOVE old photos.

Leonard,

Drop me a line and swing by when you are out this way. I am 5 miles from the bottom of Hwy. 138 (back way to Big Bear) or 10 minutes off the I-10 frwy at Oak Glen.

Chief, maybe I am using the wrong term. Not sure. My prints are black and white but they do look very different from a standard black and white photo. I remember my FIL talking about sepia tones and it stuck in my head that that we what he printed me.

http://www.coffrinsoldwestgallery.com/index.html 

The clarity of these prints is spectacular because they are printed from the original glass plates.

^

Sepia tone is more of a brown/tan color. As with any toning process, the silver in the b&w print is replaced with or converted to another chemical. I forget the exact reason why the brown coloration is called sepia - something to do with the source of the chemicals used to convert the silver.

If the prints you have are about 8x10 inches in size, then they are most likely what is known as a "contact print". Contact prints are created by physically placing the image source directly on top of the photgraphic print paper and then exposing the paper to light (in the case of film negatives a piece of glass would be utilized to press the negative flat against the paper, in the case of a glass negative plate, as you have, this is not necessary).

By eliminating the optics of the enlarger, uneven lighting of the negative, human focusing errors, the possibility of an enlarger bed (where you put the paper) being out of alignment to the projection head, etc... this contact print process yields the absolute highest level of detail and clarity possible for the source image.

Not to mention that the old glass plate negatives have a very unique look to them due to the emulsions and chemical processes used and the extremely long exposure times necessary to take the photgraph.

TG, thanks for the info. I actually understood what you are saying/referencing. My only question is....how the hell do you know all this stuff?????

My print is an enlargement but is still very very clear. I can see the cracks and lines in the skin on Sitting Bull's face in my print. I do know that my FIL has a pretty elaborate dark room with quite a bit of equipment, enlargers, etc. He has done prints for some of the high end restaurants in Montana (and other states too). Not sure how much he is doing now with the economy the way it is. Probably not much.

"how the hell do you know all this stuff"

I used to shoot a lot of film and I did all my own B&W darkroom work.

Oh, as for the detail, look at the size of your negative - it's huge, and glass plates are also usually fairly fine grain negatives. High clarity + large size == massive capability for capturing detail.

One of the few I would have at my "Historical figures I would like to meet" table.

Great Indian leader.......tactically sound and a historical figure of great proportions.

Charlie

People, I highly recommend a visit to the link Knock has provided in #8.

The photos there are fascinating.

Tatanka Yotanka.

Ray I will do that! And I have now ordered one of your FIL's catalogues. Looking forward to receiving it.