Modoc Indian War Lantern Slides

This collection contains lantern slides with both photographs and illustrations of the 1873-1873 Modoc War, a conflict fought in the lava beds at Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border by a small band of Modoc Indians and the United States Army. The lantern slides include images of Indian scouts for the U.S. Army; U.S. Army soldiers and camps, Modoc leaders and prisoners of war, and the lava beds that served as the Modocs' stronghold. Notable images include portraits of Modoc leaders Captain Jack and Winema (Toby) Riddle, shaman Curly-headed Doctor, and Indian scout Donald McKy. Within the collection, 26 photographs can be attributed to Eadweard Muybridge, 13 to Louis Heller, and 2 to Putnam & Valentine.

Additional images include a Warm Spring Indian camp; San Francisco Bulletin correspondent William McKay; Captain Jack's family; Modocs Scar-Faced Charley, and Boston Charley; the grave sites of Boston Charley, Black Jim, Schonchin John; Modoc women; illustrations of what is possibly the Modoc attack on the 1873 Peace Commission; illustrations of Indians; ruins of buildings; and a wounded U.S. soldier.

Item titles in square brackets devised by cataloger. Other titles are transcribed from slide labels and some are supplied from the titles of the original stereographs by Muybridge and Heller.

Within the collection, there are also some unidentified images that may have been part of a lantern slide presentation but not related to the war, including a still-life image of California poppies (Item 51) and an unidentified scene of buildings on a rocky outpost (Item 52).