Mar 31, 2011 - Sale 2241

Sale 2241 - Lot 33

Price Realized: $ 4,320
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
"I STUCK WITH THE BUNCH THAT MADE HISTORY" (AMERICAN INDIANS / WESTERN ART.) Barry, David F. Archive of 4 long letters to Joseph Scheuerle. Autograph Letters Signed. 13 pages, 11 x 8 1/4 inches, all on Barry's illustrated letterhead, some a bit worn at folds, four leaves annotated by Scheuerle. Superior, WI, 1914 and 1931
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David F. Barry (1854-1934) was one of the leading photographers of American Indians in the late 19th century. These letters are filled with rich and cantankerous detail. Barry repeatedly rails against painters of Indian portraits who plagiarized Barry's work rather than painting from life, sharing anecdotes about Henry H. Cross, Edwin Deming, and Eldredge Burbank as primary offenders. He jokes that "When you find an artist that will admit that he painted an Indian portrait from one of Barry's photos, kindley send me his name" (14 August 1914). Frederic Remington is not denounced, only gently criticized: "I never admired his Indian work. This may seem strange to you. The army man, the western man, I think he was in the lead" (23 Oct 1931). In the same letter, he also discusses Charles Marion Russell: "Russell never sold many painting. His wife was at Duluth a few years back with a no. of them. She never sold one, sorry to say."
Barry also shared some of his own notable experiences. Referring to his time among the Sioux, he wrote "You know I never put in any time at the Blackfeet agency. I stuck with the bunch that made history, and who have gone down in history" (12 August 1914). On the Gros Ventres or A'ani nation: "Poor devils, I knew them well. The most independent tribe in North America. They would not live at an agency. In fact, had none, drew no rations, were self supporting. There old chief Crow Flyes High was a mean old devil, haughty and independant. I have a 5 x 8 plate of him. They lived a mile above Fort Buford, N. Dak" (14 August 1914). He also discusses Buffalo Bill Cody and associates.
Most notable is his 5 May 1914 letter which attempts to debunk a recent article by Charles Eastman on the Battle of Little Bighorn. On a claim that Custer was shot point blank in the face: "Genl Custer had no marks, his body was the whitest body on the field. Dr. H.R. Porter had to make a close examination to find where he had been shot. . . . He had not bled any, simply two little dark discolored marks where the bulets entered." "More rot, Rain in Face cutting Tom Custer's heart out. His heart was not removed at all." Regarding a man who appeared in one of Barry's group portraits of Custer survivors: "This man Ham was not in that fight. The stiff sneaked in on me. He was sergt in Capt McDougall's Co. B of the 7th Cavalry, joined them in 1877." This letter is cited in Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, page 207, note 51. Barry concludes his final letter with this bit of gossip about 7th Cavalry survivor Edward S. Godfrey, which appears to be elsewhere unrecorded: "I am glad you know Gen. Godfrey. You know Rain in the Face was in love with Mrs. Godfrey when she was single."
a great group of letters, both entertaining and historically significant.