Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 20

Price Realized: $ 375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
(AMERICAN INDIANS--PHOTOGRAPHS.) Photograph of an Algonquian family with hunting camp operator George Ryman. Photograph, 10 x 8 inches, with manuscript caption "George H. Ryman with his Indian family of Iroquois Indians in Quebec, Canada"; moderate wear, missing a bit of one corner, small adhesion in foreground of image, mount remnants on verso. [Sainte-Anne-du-Lac, QB], circa 1930s?

Additional Details

George H. Ryman (1889-1961) of Wilkes-Barre, PA was a renowned early breeder of English Setter spaniels. This photograph shows him at his Sloe Depot Hunting and Fishing Camp near Sainte-Anne-du-Lac on Natakim Lake in Quebec, three hours north of Montreal. English Setter breeder and historian John Fetters reproduced another example of the image in a 2013 blog post titled "Gifts for the Commando Family." He identified Ryman as the kneeling man 5th from the left, with his long-time camp guide Willie Commando kneeling beside him, 4th from the left, surrounded by Willie's wife, mother, children, and other extended family members. Supposedly, Ryman had brought a large supply of lemons on this visit to Quebec, and had prepared a bucket of fresh lemonade for the family--the first lemonade they had ever tasted. Note the bucket and cups in the foreground. Willie Commando was described as an "Algonquin guide par excellence" in a 15 December 1951 McLean's article, "Ottawa's Beautiful Backyard."