BEN WITTICK Governors House, Pueblo Acoma NM 1890 c., Albumen 5x8" Boudoir Card ASG# BW2/1377.

The Governor and other Pueblo officials pose on the first floor roof of the line of connected houses. A white man poses with the Indian officers and their families. Acoma Pueblo is one of the great indigenous architectural structures in America.

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 was very successful in marketing as his photographs were more reminiscent of earlier delegation photographs and field views of the Geologic Survey photographers. 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.

Excellent Overall. Tones rich creamy sepia tones, title in negative, minor wear. Albuquerque studio backmark upside down verso. Linen tape and tape residue marks verso