The Esther Henderson and Chuck Abbott White Mountain Apache Photographs
Rent from DeepDyve- The Esther Henderson and Chuck Abbott White Mountain Apache Photographs
Notes
1. Perhaps in part because Cummings was not an accomplished or systematic photographer, several of his students from the Kinishba years pursued the medium for documentary anthropological purposes far beyond excavations and shots of workers. The work of Tad Nichols, available at Northern Arizona University's Cline Library (NAU.MS.332, http://www2.nau.edu/~libei-p/scadb/collna-mereferal.cfm?collection_name=Nichols%2C%20Tad, consulted May 27, 2006), is the most accessible of these bodies of work. Nichols photographed a basket-weaving sequence featuring Flora Erskine in 1941 (see fig. 11), a few months before the Abbott and Henderson shoot.
2. Many details associated with the lives, families, and residential geographies of the individual subjects in the photos presented here have been left unattended as an invitation to interested parties—particularly members of the region's Apache community—to add their knowledge and perspective. Beyond the eleven reproduced here, the Hoeck collection of Abbott and Henderson photos includes at least sixteen distinct images (several of which may have been taken years after the initial shoot). All of the Hoeck collection images are on file at Nohwike' Bagowa, the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum at Fort Apache. The only other repository known to curate additional original Henderson and Abbott prints from White Mountain Apache tribal lands is the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson (see AHS PC 29, PC 175).
3. See also pages on the Arizona Highways website at www.arizonahighways.com/page.cfm?name=About_History, consulted May 22, 2006.
4. Cooper (2005:117) suggests that once Henderson passed through the gauntlet of exclusionary politics and had an established practice, she turned the tables and sought to exclude other prospective commercial practitioners. During our consultation in early 2006 Henderson emphasized the sexist dimension to this issue, noting her insistence at the time that if she were to be required by Buehman, Bate, and Updike to meet their professional standards, so should other men, including Abbott. Also see Roy Drachman's (1979) side of the story, also available at http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/drachman/foreword.html, consulted May 28, 2006.
5. Dedi and Mike Hoeck do not recall the specific circumstances associated with their Henderson and Abbott acquisition, but it probably occurred as part of the purchase, intended for retail resale, of a large lot of historical photographs. Their collection is the best of what remained following the close of the Indian arts and crafts business they operated in Reno, Nevada.
6. The registers and Cummings' personal guest books are among his papers (MS 200) curated at the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson.
7. In addition to the 1942 portraits captured at Kinishba, a Henderson photograph of Cummings, probably shot between 1946 and 1950, graces the frontispiece of the festschrift compiled in honor of Cummings' ninetieth birthday and entitled For the Dean (Reed and King 1950). This portrait, which remains in the photographic collections of the Arizona State Museum, is also said to have served as the basis for the oil painting that hung for many years in the State Museum library and entrance lobby.
8. As this occurs I hope the owners will consider sending high- or medium-resolution copies to the tribe's Cultural Center at Fort Apache.
References Cited
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1979...
