Full length studio CDV portrait. Lawrence, Kansas: W.H. Lamon, n.d. Period pencil inscription to mount recto: "Chal-lope or Grey Eyes". Photographer's imprint to verso partially obscured by green 3-cent revenue cent. The photographer Lamon has signed his name in ink over the stamp. Modern pencil inscription to mount verso identifies the subject and photographer.

Impressive CDV photograph of Ne-Quaw-Ho-Ko or ‘Gray Eyes’, Chief of the Sac and Fox Indians. This expertly composed likeness was made by artist W.H. Lamon, who operated in Lawrence, Kansas from 1865 until 1886, with a brief stint in Grayson County, Texas in 1874-1875. Lamon signed his name in ink over the applied three-cent tax stamp that covers his distinctive backmark from his studio 125 Massachusetts Street, corner of Massachusetts and Henry. (Carl Mautz, Biographies of Western Photographers).

Origins of the Sac and Fox tribe can be traced to Michigan, where their first Chief was Black Hawk. The tribe eventually moved to Iowa, then to Kansas and finally relocated near modern-day Stroud, Oklahoma. On February 18, 1867, in Washington, D.C., the Sac and Fox signed a treaty with the federal government in which they sold their land along the Mississippi River to the United States and agreed to relocate to Indian Territory. Gray Eyes was an instrumental member of the tribal delegation that negotiated this treaty.

This image dates to just prior to their relocation and may be the earliest known portrait of Chief Gray Eyes.


(Western Photographers)

[Native Americans, Sac and Fox, Historic Photography, Early Photography, Albumen Photography, CDV, Carte de Visite, Carte-de-Visite, Cabinet Cards, Indian Territory, Oklahoma]