1. WITTICK & RUSSELL View in the Ruins of the ancient Pueblo of Pecos, looking north, Oct 80, ASG# W&R/1010 a view of crumbling Pueblo walls before archeological reconstruction.

2. WITTICK & RUSSELL In the Ruins of the ancient Pueblo of the Pecos, Old Church in distance, looking south, Oct. '80, ASG# W&R/1012. Now a National Monument, the Church and ruins are shown here with the valley and Mesas in the back.

3. WITTICK & RUSSELL Old Mexican Mill on the Rio Pecos, N.M. 1880 c., ASG# 1014 W&R/1014 showing the valley, three people stand in front of the mill door.

3 Albumen 4x7" Stereo card views of Pecos Pueblo and Pecos area New Mexico in 1880 photographed by Ben Wittick and published by Wittick & Russell c. 1882. Each has the Views in New Mexico and Arizona backmark with titles in ink

G. Ben Wittick (b. 1845 Huntington County, Pennsylvania; d. 1903, Ft. Wingate, New Mexico). A prominent 19th century regional photographer, Wittick had his first studio in Moline, Illinois. He moved west working for the railroad and set up a series of studios in Santa Fe (1879 with a brief partnership with W.P. Bliss publishing as Wittick & Bliss), Albuquerque (1881 with F. W. Russell), Gallup (1890s) and Ft. Wingate (1886 - 1903). Primarily he made scenic images of natural wonders of the Southwest, as well as Indian life among the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni. He became known as the first photographer to make images of the Hopi Snake Dance. When he died in 1903 while collecting rattlesnakes for the Hopi Snake Dance it was said that the words of the snake priest from years before predicting his death at the fangs of a snake had been fulfilled. Wittick's formats ranged from albumen print stereo cards to silver prints up to 11 x 14". He was friends of John Hillers and published Hillers images under his imprint. R.W. Russell, partner of Ben Wittick, first in Santa Fe, then Albuquerque. Using a painted backdrop of formal Romanesque garden with balustrade the Indian portraits in this setting are probably by Russell from 1881-84.

All three overall rich tones, mild to moderate soiling, wear and abrasions